Community event from 7 a.m. to noon Saturday

The slogan pretty much sums it up: “More than just a pancake. It’s community. It’s tradition.”

“That’s exactly what it’s about,” T.J. Parnell, current president of the Ironton Rotary Club, said about the annual event that is part breakfast, part fundraiser and part social event.

The club will be serving up flapjacks, sausage and coffee to the community from 7 a.m. to noon Saturday at the AEP building, 525 S. Third St. Tickets are $5 and customers have the option to dine in or take out.

The pancake breakfast is the civic organization’s largest fundraiser of the year. It gives the community a chance to gather and reunite for at least one morning, Darwin Haynes, vocational service chair and club member, said.

“You get to see a lot of people that you don’t get to see on a regular basis,” Haynes said.

Club members make a serious commitment to the event.

“I get up at 4 a.m. and stand on my feet for 5 hours, but it’s worth it,” said Ray “Doc” Payne, club member and lead pancake maker.

The breakfast is a dual event. It’s a community event, but it’s also a time for Rotary Club members to work together as a team, Haynes said.

“Before I joined Rotary, I loved going because I would come home from college and I got a chance to see many people from home that I knew and loved in one place,” Parnell said. “Now that I am a member of Rotary, I know what a benefit it is to our community, not only in regards to fellowship, but also in the amount it brings in to finance Rotary’s projects to better Ironton.”

All of the money goes to better the world in general and the Ironton community specifically.

Some of the funds go to Rotary International, which attempts to eliminate polio throughout the world. Locally, the Rotary Club helps sponsor nursing scholarships at Ohio University Southern every year and the club purchases dictionaries for all third graders in Lawrence County schools.

The club expects to serve between 500 to 600 meals at the event, Parnell said.

“The crowd will vary a little due to the weather,” Haynes said. “If the weather is bad we have a bigger crowd than when the weather is good.”

Payne is also interested in the weather report.

“We are hoping for bad weather, snow or sleet, because the worse the weather, the bigger the crowd. When it’s sunny people stay home,” Payne said.