Raises funds for OU Southern nursing scholarship

Ironton Rotary Club had its long-standing traditional pancake breakfast on Saturday at the Knights of Columbus building, where it has been held since 2016.

“The turnout has been great,” said Marty Conley, the Ironton Rotary Club’s president. As of 10 a.m., he said it was picking up and was about as crowded as it had been all morning.

Manning the griddles and flipping the flapjacks were Darwin Haynes and Lawrence County auditor Paul David Knipp.

Haynes has been on grill duty since 1993 for the pancake breakfast.

“I took the place of Ray ‘Doc’ Payne. He was the master, he is the one that broke me in. I took his place and I have my protégé right there,” he said, motioning toward Knipp. “He’s going to take my place.”

“There is no replacing him,” Knipp said.

The Rotary Club members were helped out by Boy Scout Troop 106 and students from the nursing program at Ohio University Southern.

“Those two groups are always good to help us out every year,” Conley said.

The pancake breakfast has been a Rotary tradition for decades and is the club’s biggest fundraiser of the year with the money going toward a scholarship for a student in the OUS nursing program.

“We are happy to help them out,” Conley said.

Elizabeth Delaney, the associate professor of nursing at OUS, said her students were happy to help. She said Student Nursing Association advisor Nicole Stumbo is the one who organizes this as well as other events such as the blood drive today.

“Our students are really busy in school, so when they come out on the weekend and do this, it really makes our hearts feel good,” she said.