By the time you read this I am probably nearly over my pancakes-and-sausage-induced coma.

Saturday marked the Ironton Rotary Club’s annual pancake breakfast. Yesterday we put out hundreds of flapjacks and destroyed my love for the breakfast delicacy for several months.

Don’t get me wrong, these fluffy treats are great. You can’t beat our secret recipe. But I can only stand so many. After whipping up a million pancakes or so and scarfing down at least a half dozen pancakes and sausage links throughout the morning, you kind of lose the taste.

OK, maybe we fell a little short of a million but it sure felt like we were closing in on those six zeroes.

The pancake breakfast is far more than just what it sounds. It is a fundraiser. It is a family get-together. It is a community event.

It brings our club and our community closer together and the money goes towards a variety of worthwhile projects including nursing scholarships at Ohio University Southern, support of the variety of charitable organizations and long-term investment in downtown beautification within the city, most notably the Center Street fountain area.

Nowadays it seems like everyone has a pancake breakfast or similar event. But what separates the Rotary club’s is how long it has been going on and the level of support the community shows.

Nearly all civic and charitable organizations struggle to raise money and grow membership. Events like the pancake breakfast are important because they help illustrate what goes into being a member of civic organizations that sometimes get perceived as elitist groups that don’t welcome new members.

They also bring people closer together and create social opportunities that sometimes get lost in our modern, fast-paced Facebook world of electronic interaction.

The Internet will never be able to replace sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with your friends and neighbors talking about your community.

And, although the alarm went off far too early Saturday morning and we were whipping up batter basically before the sun had come up, it was certainly a day well spent.

 

Michael Caldwell is publisher of The Tribune. To reach him, call (740) 532-1445 ext. 24 or by e-mail at mike.caldwell@irontontribune.com.