Spaghetti and Penguin: The Penguin Lady Speaks

The evening starts with a spaghetti dinner but the main course will be penguin.

Not food, mind you.

But author Dyan deNapoli will talk about having to force feed sardines to thousands of oil-smeared penguins.

Feeding a penguin this way is no easy task, and The Penguin Lady has the scars to prove it.

You sit in a kiddie pool and grab a 10-pound penguin. They are strong and own sharp beaks and attitudes.

You squeeze the bird between your legs and coax several sardines down its throat, is basically how it's done, The Penguin Lady says.

That's the short version, and just one part of the largest-ever animal rescue.

DeNapoli will chronicle the entire adventure on Saturday through photographs and stories.

The marine disaster unfolded June 23, 2000, when a ship hauling iron ore off the coast of South Africa spilled 1,300 tons of heavy marine fuel oil.

The oil formed a slick and smeared penguins in its path.

DeNapoli was a penguin caretaker at the New England Aquarium at the time.

Seven days later she arrived in South Africa, staying almost three weeks of the rescue.

Later, she chronicled the entire event in her book The Great Penguin Rescue.

The book, which came out in paperback in August, tells of the ship's sinking, the penguin rescue and rehabilitation, as well as a follow-up, a decade later.

Since 2007 deNapoli has been working on behalf of penguins by teaching humans about the flightless birds.

On Saturday she will have copies of her book available for sale and signing.

Twenty percent of her proceeds fund penguin protection efforts.

Tickets to Saturday's dinner and presentation are $15 for adults and $10 for children under 12.

The dinner starts at 5:30 pm and the talk is at 6:30 pm at the church, 40 Monument Ave.

For ticket information call 781-592-6081 or 781-631-7290.