Financial proceeds from homemade pancakes, home-cured bacon, and 255 litres of imported Ontario syrup have helped the Rotary Club of Moose Jaw Wakamow support the community’s homeless population.
The club kicked off its month of pancake breakfast fundraisers on Aug. 10 by hosting a scrumdiddlyumptious meal at the Kiwanis River Park Pavilion & Lodge in Wakamow Valley during the regularly scheduled Farmers’ Market.
The organization served 115 plates of hot and tasty flapjacks, and those sales generated $692 to support Square One Community Inc.'s community initiatives.
The club’s other summer breakfasts will be held in the same location on Saturday, Aug. 24 and 31, from 9 a.m. to roughly noon. All the proceeds will support the club's community-focused projects, such as literacy, health care and youth scholarships.
Club members presented Square One with a cheque on Aug. 15 at the latter’s headquarters at William Milne Place — the Old Fire Hall — on Fairford Street East.
Monty Bennett, the past president of Wakamow Rotary, said the breakfast fundraiser was a great experience even though they ran out of pancakes an hour before the grills were to cool off. He credited Square One’s social media promotions of the event for bringing out such a large crowd.
“I can’t stress enough how wonderful it is to be able to partner with a community member,” he added. “And in the Rotary Club, we are absolutely thrilled to have Della (Ferguson) and the Square One people as partners.”
When asked why pancake breakfasts are important, Lorne Calvert, current club president, said it’s “part of our human condition” to join over food and breakfast. He jokingly noted that the opportunity to have breakfast is too good to pass up — it has “an attraction all on its own” — when Bennett is cooking the food.
“But it is an opportunity for us to be social with each other (because) so much of our lives are spent on screens,” he continued. “It’s great to get together over tables.”
Calvert noted that many people who attended the breakfast were there to support Square One and its community efforts. He added the organization’s decision to focus on long-term supportive housing is one reason why the Rotary Club of Moose Jaw Wakamow raised funds for it.
Ferguson, Square One’s secretary and fundraising chairwoman, said the group was humbled and honoured that the Rotary Club selected it as the recipient for the first pancake breakfast.
She pointed out that she spoke at the Rotary International District 5550 Conference in May about Square One’s activities in Moose Jaw, so it was also a blessing to be invited to the Saturday morning pancake breakfast.
“It wasn’t just about the fundraising; it was the sense of community that we felt as our two teams worked together,” Ferguson said. “We were in the heart of Moose Jaw with the beautiful surroundings — it didn’t get better than that.
“So to have that opportunity was a gift.”
Ferguson noted that the supportive housing initiative will take plenty of money to develop, so the organization is working hard “bit by bit” to move it forward, which is why every donation helps.
