Asher Kearns,6, holds up a plate of spaghetti during a fundraiser Saturday at the Cranberry Township Elks Lodge 2249.

Several dozen people gathered in Cranberry Township Saturday to eat and build both a local and international community for families living with various craniofacial syndromes.

Maddie Karchut, a senior at Seneca Valley High School, put together the spaghetti luncheon to raise money for the nonprofit Children's Craniofacial Association. Karchut said she was overwhelmed by the showing Saturday, which filled up an event space at the Elks Lodge 2249.

"It's amazing to see families, friends and people you've never seen before coming together like this as a community," Karchut said.

This is an excerpt from a story that appears in Monday's Butler Eagle.