The great weather got almost as much attention as the great food on Saturday at the 17th annual Taste of Tribeca. For the first time in days, the rain stopped, the clouds parted, and 4,100 ticket holders (equaling last year’s record) feasted on food and sun.

“We just think Mother Nature must love us,” said the event’s co-chair, Sean Murphy Turner, noting that the threatening weather only returned when they started breaking down the booths in the late afternoon.

“People are tired to stay indoors on a very rainy week,” said Roc Restaurant owner Rocco Cadolini. “This has been the best, weatherwise, in the 11 years I’ve been here.”

As always, the Taste’s financial success—thanks to the efforts of 73 restaurateurs and some 400 volunteers—benefits Tribeca’s two elementary schools, P.S. 234 and P.S. 150.

Among the volunteers were 30 Stuyvesant students who busily fetched tastes for diners at the “premium” tables.

Freshman Anna Mello explained why she got involved.

“This area around Stuyvesant has become like my second home,” she said, “so it’s nice to take care of it, mess around here a little bit, and get a free pizza.”

Don  Zinzell, the volunteer responsible for creating a new logo design and identity for Taste each year (it was a golden egg this time around) said it is the professionalism of fellow parents that makes the effort especially rewarding.

“Everyone is so good at what they do and it’s all volunteer work so it’s really from the heart,” he said.   

The Taste’s two chief volunteers, Murphy Turner and her co-chair, Jimmy Carbone, will turn over their leadership roles to parents Faith Paris and Naomi Daniels of P.S. 234 and Hope Flamm from P.S. 150.  Murphy Turner said their goal had been to increase the event’s visibility, and the effort paid off—for Taste and for themselves.

“We had a great time,” said Murphy Turner. “I got more than I gave.”