The 64th Annual Pancake Festival put on by the Lubbock Lions Club is Saturday at the Civic Center. The event, which is their main fundraiser, goes from 7 am – 8 pm.
“It’s come and eat all you want…pancakes, sausage, milk, orange juice and all the fixings that go with it. It’s a great opportunity to support the community while having a great meal, for a great value,” says Mike Moss, Chairman of the event. “We hope to raise about $150,000 dollars this year, and all the funds raised here will primarily stay in Lubbock for the charities and organizations we support, such as Meals On Wheels, Salvation Army,” he adds.
The Lion’s Club hopes to serve 18,000 people, which means a lot of food and pancakes made on 15 different griddles.
“We use almost 6,000 pounds of pancake batter, so then that’s almost 3 tons of pancake batter. I think we use around 240 gallons of coffee, 300 or so gallons of syrup. The quantities are just huge, but again, it takes a lot to get that many people fed,” Moss says.
Moss says this really is a community tradition, and he is just one of the many that looks forward to the feast every February. For some people, it even runs through their generations.
“When I was a kid we used to come to the Pancake Festival when it was at the Coliseum, back in the 60s,” says Mike Chapman, a Lubbock Lions Club member. “Meeting friends and family down here and eating with them is kind of a fun tradition.”
Chapman says the event seems to get bigger every year. Shane Cook, another Lions Club member, has been attending and helping out since he was also a kid.
“My dad was the past president of this club and so all of us kids had to work for our pancakes growing up. For me, it’s fun to watch the kids come in. I’ve got grandkids now and they come to it, and my kids have helped out over the years,” he says. “It’s kind of a carnival atmosphere, now, more than it was then, because back then all we had was the pancakes and the sausage. Now we’ve got a lot of different things for the kids. We’ve got cotton candy, balloon, popcorn, tattoos for sale.”
The Lions Club has about 330 members, and the members will be working all day to help out with the event.
“We have about 40 different committees that make this possible. People have very specific tasks and some of those start earlier than others, but it takes a lot of people and a lot of planning,” says Moss.
Moss says they would not be able to put on this event, though, without the help of volunteers.
“We have about 700 volunteers, members from organizations of Texas Tech and others in the community that come and help us. We’ll have almost 1,000 people here throughout the day to help put this on,” he says.
Tickets will be available for purchase at the door for $7. Kids 2 years old and younger can eat free.
