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Dan Evers sings a song about pancakes to the tune of “God Bless America” while he, Debbie Bartolomucci, William Zinzilieta and others pour and flip the flapjacks for the scores of people who attended Saturday’s annual Kiwanis Club Pancake and Sausage Breakfast. RORYE O’CONNOR/REGISTER-NEWS
Kiwanis host pancake and sausage breakfast
By RORYE O’CONNOR
rorye.oconnor@register-news.com
MT. VERNON — Volunteers and Kiwanis Club members mixed, poured and fried at least 560 pounds of pancake batter mix during the 59th annual Kiwanis Club of Mt. Vernon Pancake and Sausage Breakfast.
The breakfast, which brings thousands of people ready for breakfast to the Rolland K. Lewis Community Building at Veterans Park, is one of the largest fundraising efforts held by the King City Kiwanis Club, said President John Shrum.
The funds raised go toward scholarships to college students in the area, Shrum said. Last year, the organization donated four $1,000 scholarships, three to students at Rend Lake College and one to a Kaskaskia College student.
Vice President Kevin Rettig, top salesperson for the event along with board member William Bodine, said he had raised more than $4,000 in ticket sales.
Kiwanis members began preparing for the event at 5:30 a.m. Saturday, though one convenience in recent years is the sausage prepared is precooked, said board member Glen Littrell.
“That way we don’t have to worry about it being not cooked thoroughly,” he said. “When we used to cook it at the Armory, you’d come out of the kitchen covered in grease and smoke.”
The pancake breakfast brings students together with Kiwanis members, as Mt. Vernon Township High School Future Farmers of America members and Casey Middle School Beta Club members volunteered to arrange to go boxes, pour coffee and bus tables during the Saturday morning breakfast marathon.
“We get a bunch of coffee for people,” said Amy Heckenberger, 14, a second-year volunteer from the Beta Club. “We take care of the tables.”
Jessica Jolly, 14, another Casey Beta Club member, said she enjoyed the busy event.
“I like getting to socialize and meeting new people,” she said.
The bustle was just as busy behind the scenes as on the pancake-and-sausage assembly line. Kiwanis members and volunteers steamed behind eight massive metal griddles, pouring pancakes and warming pre-cooked sausage provided by the Mt. Vernon Bob Evans restaurant.
Dan Evers, Kiwanis Associate Secretary, said he had been a “grill man” for the fundraiser breakfast since 1990. Evers entertained the pancake line with jokes and a song about pancakes to the tune of “God Bless America.”
The consensus behind the griddles was that volunteers don’t start out flipping pancakes, but are promoted.
Dr. William Zinzilieta, who has been volunteering for the breakfast since 1965, said he didn’t start pancakes until 1966.
“You get promoted to the grills,” said Debbie Bartolomucci. She added that if pancakes get burned, they don’t go to attendees, but the ducks and geese at the park enjoy them.
Litrell said it wasn’t uncommon to see attendees of the fundraiser finish their flapjacks and sausage, and sit for hours and talk.
“Some of these people have been coming here since their grandparents brought them years ago,” he said. “It becomes a family tradition.”
Kitty Irvin, a Mt. Vernon resident, sat at one of the long tables set up in the community building after finishing her meal, enjoying the atmosphere. Irvin has been coming every year to the Kiwanis breakfast since 1970, she said.
“It’s as much a social gathering as you could ask for,” she said. “I’ve already eaten, and I’m just sitting and enjoying everybody.”
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