Did you know that there is a significant difference between pancakes and hotcakes? Pancakes are delicate and oh-so fluffy, while hotcakes tend to be thick and dense. Although this may not be the most important distinction in the world, it is for the Kiwanis breakfast club who have been making their pancakes for decades in support of the neighborhood. On Saturday, September 25th, 2021, the Kiwanis Breakfast club held their second annual Pancake Day at the old armory. The event brought together volunteers from a variety of clubs along with community members to have a flip-tastic time making pancakes. 

“This is the Kiwanis Breakfast Club. We disperse about $20,000 dollars a year to the community. Today is one of our major fundraisers. We have been doing pancake breakfast now for almost 45 years. We generally have this inside but because of the pandemic we chose not to,” Lorie Koppein. “This is our second event. We did another one in May with the same concept with a drive-through and it has worked out very well. It is donation only. We used to sell tickets, but we have found out that donations work better than selling the tickets. The community has been very generous to us.”

The pancake breakfast supports many projects, such as the high school group Ferradermis robotics club, which was assisting at the event; the high school Key club, the student leadership programs of Circle K at the university, and the middle school builders club. 

 “Our main project we are working on is all-inclusive playground equipment for Starin Park playground which will be open to kids and community members who use wheelchairs,” said Koppein. “It will fit right in with the current playground which we helped renovate in 2008. We are a little short on funding and we are hoping through this event and others to raise the additional funding to install it.”

Pancakes were not the only breakfast food the breakfast club handed out. Along the drive-through there were volunteers distributing cartons of milk and inside the take home container full of pancakes was a few links of sausages! This intense delivery of hundreds of pancakes from grill to car would not have been possible without the assembly line of volunteers making it happen.

Inside coordinator, Marjorie Stoneman said, “We started setting up yesterday but we have been planning this event for a long time.  We started yesterday morning in the building, lying down the cardboard and setting up the grill and of course getting people to volunteer. Everyone’s wearing a mask and everybody’s helping out with their jobs. We got people set to make the batter, make the pancakes, make the sausages, and then distribute them out. We have all these pancake veterans here, people who have done this for many years. We really are so grateful to everyone who helped. UW Whitewater is a wonderful University with so many great students that help out every year. It’s fabulous. We really appreciate the community for helping us out.”

Students of all ages came out to help with the breakfast club, whether it be to get some volunteer hours or simply because they have a pleasant time while doing so. 

“I have always loved volunteering. I did it all through high school and now, all four years of college, said Nick Tarnow, a senior General Management Major.  “Whenever I can give back, I try to give back. The fact of doing something, I really don’t mind whatever it is. I have already gone to three or four events since the start of the semester. I am sure I will continue volunteering after I am done with college. I may even continue here at Kiwanis. I came to this pancake house two years ago in my sophomore year before Covid hit. That was when we did it all inside and now we are doing the drive-through because we just adapted to make everything work out. We started out pretty slow this morning, but the sun’s out and I think everyone is starting to wake up and come through now. I’m just standing here writing down the number of meals the people want on this notepad, and everyone has this big smile on their face as I do so.”

There were a number of folks from Whitewater who came down to support the club and fill their bellies with some hot and succulent flapjacks. This event is something that many wait months for and cannot wait to partake in whether it’s  volunteering to flip pancakes or merely eating them! Everyone who left on Saturday felt a sense of accomplishment and feeling pretty flippin’ great about the day.

To learn more about the Breakfast club and their fundraisers go to: https://www.facebook.com/KiwanisWhitewaterWI/

Gallery • 10 Photos

Ky McCombe

Liana Opitz, a junior and history bachelor of science in education major packs up pancake meals for customers at the Whitewater Armory, Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021.