YOUNGSTOWN — If a single saying could encapsulate this year’s fundraiser — and add a key ingredient to it — aimed at benefiting a popular section of Mill Creek Park, it might be “Gli amici sono il sale della vita” (“Friends are the salt of life”).

The Italian expression essentially means that good friends add flavor and enjoyment to life.

Suffice it to say that the short saying went a long way toward capturing the spirit that was evident during Friday evening’s annual summer garden party and dinner fundraiser in Mill Creek MetroParks’ Fellows Riverside Gardens off Mahoning Avenue.

Between 280 and 300 people attended the five-hour formal outdoor gathering, themed “A Night in Italy,” on an evening of ideal weather to raise funds for Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and improving the botanical gardens as an aesthetic, cultural and educational center. Even though FFRG operates independently of the MetroParks, the two entities collaborate to sponsor a variety of events and programs, as well as to raise money for large garden projects, according to FFRG’s website.

The annual garden party event is the organization’s largest fundraiser, though no fundraising goal was mentioned Friday.

Besides a large filling of camaraderie and friendship, central to Friday’s colorful, Italian-themed gathering was a menu that consisted of beef braciole, Tuscan chicken pasta, chicken Florentine, seafood ravioli Pomodoro, Italian greens, rosemary Focaccia and Panzanella salad.

Handling the sweet dessert end of things was the Youngstown Cookie Table, which upholds a tradition dating to the 1920s during the hardships of the Great Depression. Many Italian and other immigrants in the Mahoning Valley used their traditions to create cookie tables in lieu of elaborate wedding cakes — a practice many women family members during that time referred to as “a labor of love.”

“We’ve been doing this for eight years. It’s always been a privilege,” Patty Rydarowicz, general manager of Inspired Catering by Kravitz, said.

The business prepared all of the menu items for the gathering, she added.

Friday’s event also featured the first Italian-themed grazing table that featured a wide array of Italian crackers, cheeses, meats and other selections, Rydarowicz said.

“We work well in partnership with Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens and try to build it better every year,” she said, adding, “We’re like a big family out here.”

Also on hand were Marisa Schumann and her husband, Evan Schumann, who own L’uva Bella Winery in Poland. The couple was providing opportunities for attendees to sample a variety of wines.

The underlying reason for their participation was to support the event and the gardens, Marisa Schumann said.

The evening’s entertainment consisted of Ed Madaj, also known as “One Cello,” who provided his rendition of Italian songs such as the popular 1953 Dean Martin hit “That’s Amore,” along with Moreno Fruzzetti, an Italian-American vocalist, and the Vegas Band.

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