By Carter Howe
howethom@grinnell.edu
The Kiwanis Club of Grinnell will host their annual pancake breakfast fundraiser on Saturday, Oct. 28 from 6:30 a.m. to noon at Elks Lodge. The breakfast, which will feature all-you-can-eat pancakes, eggs and sausage, will raise money for Grinnell’s chapter of Kiwanis International, a community service organization whose mission is to help kids around the world. In this vein, money raised from the event will go toward local programming to Head Start, the partnership between the federal government and local charities that seeks to prepare low-income children up to age five for school, as well as toward Grinnell Regional Medical Center’s program to provide fitted bike helmets to every third-grader in the area and Grinnell-Newburg Community High School’s after-prom party committee. Tickets cost $8.
“The Kiwanis Club of Grinnell has been hosting its annual pancake breakfast for probably longer than I’ve been alive, and each year we pick different youth-focused programs on which to spend that money,” said Jeanette Budding, the event’s coordinator. “So all the money is given back to various programs within the community that, for the most part, have a youth connection.”
This year, Kiwanis is partnering with the after-prom committee to host the fundraiser for the first time and will donate a portion of the funds raised to their committee. The after-prom party, this year hosted at the high school, gives students a safe, fun and alcohol-free alternative for a space to go after prom.
“It just gives them a safe place to go where they can have a lot of fun, and they bring in entertainment, activities, lots of prizes. … It kind of gives them permission to stay up all night and be having fun without having risks that have historically happened a long time ago after prom,” Budding said.
The pancake breakfast in the past has also been popular with pheasant hunters.
“We historically always have it on the opening day of pheasant hunting season because the pheasant hunters love to come in and have a breakfast before they go out, and this year it might be raining, so it will be a good time to come in, have breakfast and wait until they see how that’s going,” Budding said.
The pancake breakfast is the Kiwanis club’s biggest fundraiser of the year. This year, Budding hopes to raise $4000. However, this amount is lower than previous years’ goals.
“I would love to raise $4000. That’s about what we raised last year. Historically that is down. We used to raise almost five, six thousand dollars and the last probably four years, it’s been going down, and I’m not quite sure why. I’d love to know why, but that’s just the reality,” Budding said.
Budding said that Kiwanis is a worthy organization and is always looking for new members and welcomes support from Grinnell students.
“At the college level there’s a sort of leadership program called Circle K,” Budding said. “If there are students involved who would like to know about it I would more than gladly talk to them about it. … We’re always looking for members and people who want to serve and help youth so if people have a desire and interest in serving children in our community, we would love to welcome them.”
