There are so many funny, endearing stories about the Sayville Rotary Beefsteak fundraiser, you can’t make them up.

Like the time the area’s electricity was wiped out during the Northeast blackout, in 2003.

The weather was fine, but with cooking and refrigeration underway at the Long Island Maritime Museum, it could have been a disaster. Talk about cooperation: Word got around, and the Kiwanians came to the rescue with a generator.

The recent stories about the Rotary Beefsteak are not as dramatic, just fun. They include newly installed president Chris Imperato, who heads up Long Island Coin, and who attended his first event seven years ago, then joined. “We’ll be supporting a lot of different charities,” he said of the money raised. “There’s the oyster and scholarship projects to the school lunchbox program. The Guatemala Literature Project, Sustainable Cambodia, and money given to guest speakers, where we also donate to the organizations they represent.”

Don Hester, president at Percy Hoek Inc., a family generational firm, has been at the barbecue grill cooking the tender morsels of meat since the 1960s. 

“The original cook was George from Beers Soda Fountain shop,” he said. “George knew about the secret sauce. So did Chuck Raynor of Raynor & D’Andrea.” The secret sauce remains so to this day.

Do not ask. But it is delicious.