Kiwanis Club of Aurora, 59th Annual Pancake Day

Kiwanis Club of Aurora
Aurora Central Catholic High School
1255 N. Edgelawn Dr.
Aurora, IL 60506

March 21, 2008



Closing in on its sexagennial anniversary, the annual Kiwanis Club of Aurora's pancake breakfast looks as lively and vibrant as ever! And by that, I mean it was just as good as it was last year. That's really all I can personally compare it to. Prominently advertised throughout the city, you really had no excuse to miss out this time around! Thousands upon thousands of steaming-hot jacks were flapped (as seen in these photos from last year) and all the money went to a good cause. Or at least I'm assuming it did. Contact these people if you want to find out for sure.

We were two of the last patrons through the door before the last call at 12:30, so we bought our golden tickets and quickly made our way to the serving area. We were lucky enough to receive (what we were told were) the final sausage links of the day. We would have been issued a grand total of four to split between us instead were given of a mere three. Our protests were preemptively silenced by an extra plate of pancakes swiftly handed our way. Of course, you can always go back for seconds (which we later did anyway) but it was nice to have a few more to chew on before begging for yet another helping. Very good pancakes, certainly not cooked to a gourmet standard, but the mess hall turntable griddle infused them with a friendly flavor that brought back memories of eating in church camp canteens as a young boy and a sense of community and "connectedness" with my fellow campers/neighbors/man that I didn't know existed outside of testimonials on Erowid.org.

As we were finishing our meal, staff began collecting all the empty Styrofoam plates and cups left behind by previous diners and folding up the unoccupied tables and chairs. They went to work on our area, clearing away all the seating around us until we nearly had the front half of the room to ourselves, and hovered over us as we ate, eagerly plucking each individual napkin or butter packet away from us the moment it appeared we were finished with it. This was a surreal experience, to say the least, the stuff of high-concept music videos. Aside from this, it was a satisfying meal and we soon left the gymnasium feeling quite content.

There was a raffle for a gift basket but I turned down the offer to purchase a ticket for it. I'm kind of regretting it and wondering what could have been if I'd tried my luck. I guess there's always next year.