“This is a good fellowship thing and has been consistent through the years,” Golden K President Bob Uglum said. “We get people continuing to come back, enjoying seeing people they haven’t seen in awhile.”
The 19th annual pancake breakfasts will be held from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. every Saturday in February, starting today, at the Little Hawaiian Restaurant on Rome Street, just off Adamson Square. Tickets are $6 per person and can be purchased at the door, or from members of various clubs selling them in advance.
Despite rising food costs, Uglum said the pancake breakfast ticket price has been held at $6 for many years.
“We’ve worked hard to keep the price and menu the same,” Uglum said. “We got it started with a big menu and we’ve kept it that way. Most other pancake breakfasts serve only the pancakes and meat.”
This year’s menu, as in the past, will include pancakes, syrup, sausage, scrambled eggs, grits, biscuits, gravy, coffee and juice.
“The biggest things that have helped us keep the costs down are our sponsors and advertising,” Uglum said. “Southwire is a corporate sponsor and we have about 27 other sponsors. We also couldn’t do it without the help of Little Hawaiian and its employees, with many people donating their time.”
The Golden K has a lot of groups selling breakfast tickets, which amount for about half the ticket sales.
“Our club has 12 sponsored youth groups in area schools, including Key Club, Circle K and Builders Club,” Uglum said. “When they sell a $6 ticket, they get to keep half for their club.”
The breakfast is the club’s largest fundraiser of the year.
Money raised from the breakfast will benefit several local organizations, including Alice’s House, Soup Kitchen, Boy Scouts, Rape Crisis Center, Boys and Girls Club, ARC of Carroll County, Camp Sunshine, Carrollton Emergency Shelter, Rape Crisis Center, Carrollton Pre-K, CASA, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, First Foundation, Kids Peace, Salvation Army and St. Margaret’s Outreach.
“Our primary focus is on kids and 100 percent of what’s raised stays right here in Carroll County,” Uglum said.
The club is trying to be more environmentally conscious this year by using recycled disposables.
“In the past, we’ve used Styrofoam cups, but we’ve made a switch to recycled disposables,” Uglum said. “We’re trying to be more conscious of our environmental footprint, and when you feed this many people, you leave a big footprint.”
Traditional plates are used, but the eating utensils are plastic.
“We’d like to find a solution to that,” Uglum said.
The Golden K hopes to sell about 3,600 meals this year. Last year, the breakfasts netted $32,000 and Uglum hopes to surpass that figure this year.
The pancake breakfast fundraiser was started in 1995, soon after the Golden K club was chartered. The meals were originally held in the Maple Street Mansion ballroom, but were moved to Little Hawaiian in 2008 after the Mansion closed.
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