Carl and Claire Willette of Jefferson got their bread slices and continued making their way along the buffet that still had a steady line near the scheduled end of Saturday night’s, Sept. 30, ham and bean supper at the Alna Fire Department.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Claire Willette said.

They had a lot of company in wanting to make the event. Beth Whitney, president of the department’s nonprofit, fundraising arm, estimated close to 300 people came. Final numbers weren’t in yet, but the supper was probably a record-breaker in both attendance and funds raised, she said.

She didn’t think the twice-a-year suppers, one each spring, the other in the fall, had ever before had a line of people still just getting their food at 5:45 p.m., an hour and 45 minutes after the start time. “It’s very gratifying to know people like our suppers,” Whitney said, adding the department couldn’t do them without the community’s support in contributing food.

“I love this supper,” Marva Nesbit of Newcastle said. She was dining at one of the long tables in the station’s bay with Martha Brady of Edgecomb and a former Boothbay couple, Randy and Susi Walker, now of Newcastle.

Fire Chief Mike Trask, on the microphone as pie auctioneer, advised attendees about the pies’ Maine blueberries, local apples and other ingredients. Whitney’s husband, Assistant Fire Chief Roger Whitney, collected the money from winning bidders, some who went home with multiple pies.

The money raised Saturday will go toward projects, Beth Whitney said. The list includes getting a side-by-side all-terrain vehicle to reach brush fires inaccessible by truck; and eventually redoing the parking lot next to Route 218, she said.