The Jacksonville Kiwanis Club had a very successful Pancake and Sausage Day again this year.
The annual fundraising event was again held at the Cured Catering facility located in the former McClellan dining hall on the MacMurray campus site, and after a three-year absence, dine-in service returned to the event on Monday.
Pancake and Sausage Day co-chair, Tom Glossop says he and fellow Kiwanians had a hard time remembering exactly how to set up the dining hall Saturday after so long, but beyond that, it was a very smooth and successful event.
“We served a total of 4,486 people that day and we’re very happy with that. Especially after not dining in since 2020. We had strictly drive-through for a couple of years, and now that we are back to inside, we are going to keep the dining room open as long as we can. I’d also like to share that it is estimated we cooked over 16,000 pancakes, and used over 1,200 pounds of sausage, 160 gallons of milk, and nine pounds of coffee.
The dining room was open all day, however, the drive-through was limited to evening service only. Glossop says despite the limited time, the drive-through was still a big success. He says many thanks are owed to Routt/Our Saviour Schools for again allowing the club the use of their parking lot.
“Unfortunately we had a conflict of dates this year and we had to hold it on a date the school couldn’t close. So we could only have it from 4:00 to 7:00, but they were very cooperative in trying to help us out. Next year we are hoping to get a date set that is good for both of us, where they can close and have drive-through all day.
The drive-through has really become popular over the years. And we served over 500 people per hour in the three hours that we had the driver through open. It was like 1,508 meals were served through the drive-through in three hours, and that is just phenomenal.”
Glossop says members are still turning in ticket money they collected ahead of the event by selling tickets, however, the event is already an overwhelming success with the proceeds going to help children in the immediate area.
“We are going to net probably around thirty-three thousand dollars from this endeavor, and 100% of all proceeds from any of our fundraisers goes into a special account that we call our foundation account. We can’t use those funds for anything other than projects and events that we put on for the community to support children in this area.”
Glossop says many thanks are in order for the great number of people and organizations that pitched in to make the day a success. He says many volunteers with no connection to the Kiwanis stepped up to help serve meals.
He says thanks are also deserved for the great effort put forth by the club members, as well as Routt/Our Savior and Cured Catering for the continued support of the event.
For more information on the Jacksonville Kiwanis Club, log on to kiwanis.org, or look them up as Jacksonville Kiwanis Club on Facebook.