What to know about parking, pancakes and more ahead of the Kiwanis Club's annual breakfast

Memorial Day weekend in Burlington would not be the same without pancakes fresh off the griddle at the Port of Burlington.

The annual Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast fundraiser, considered one of the community's biggest social events run by Burlington's largest service organization, will run from 6:30 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the port.

The alternate flood site is Burlington High School's cafeteria, however, lack of parking due to construction, and not high water, is this year's challenge facing breakfast organizers.

According to George Rinker, Kiwanis immediate past president and breakfast chairman, to address the issue, the city of Burlington is providing free shuttle service every 10 minutes from 6 a.m. to noon that will pick up, and drop off, passengers along a set route that covers Jefferson, North Third, Washington, North Front, Valley, and North Fifth streets.

The breakfast stop will be at Memorial Auditorium's north parking lot.

After a short walk to the port, people will find a fantastic meal put together by 150 volunteers, and might just run into friends they haven't seen since the last breakfast.

The pancakes always come with a special-recipe sausage provided by Hy-Vee, and both are drowned in about 27 cases of McDonald's syrup over the course of the morning.

When the breakfast is over, they will have used 650 pounds of pancake mix and 1,000 pounds of sausage.

The sausage is "whole hog," meaning the product is made from fresh or frozen muscle meat from swine in such proportions as are normal to a single animal, and must not contain more than 50% fat nor more than 3% water.

The breakfast coincides with the Snake Alley Criterium, back this year from a two-year COVID hiatus, and many race spectators will make it their first stop of the day.

Thousands watch the famous bicycle race, but the pancake breakfast has its own loyal fans, whose donations help the 20-plus local organizations and charities the club supports every year.

The pancake breakfast — a tradition dating back to 1989 — usually serves about 3,000 meals and raises more than $30,000 to donate back to area programs.The menu includes pancakes, sausage and a drink.

Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door for adults, $3 for kids under 13 and $4 for kids 13 and up; tickets are available at Burlington Fareway and Hy-Vee stores, from any Kiwanis member, or at the door.

The breakfast is Kiwanis Club’s biggest fundraiser for area children's programs and scholarships, with lots of area help.

"We have 15 sponsors who provide products and 56 financial sponsors," said Rinker.

In 2021, Kiwanis contributed $66,000 to 20 local charitable organizations aimed at improving the lives of children in the community.

Kiwanis fundraisers also include the Santa Project and Shamrock Shuffle, however, in 2023, Burlington Police Department will organize Shamrock Shuffle, raising funds for its K-9 program.

Kiwanis provides Coats for Kids, bell ringing, and thesaurus and dictionary programs as service projects, along with raising funds for West Burlington Southeastern Community College scholarships.

Their first priority is young children.

As part of that, the club provides Christmas in July — an evening of fun for area children to attend a Burlington Bees ballgame, where Santa has been known to arrive on a Harley or even in a convertible; and Kiwanis Kid's Christmas, where children can pick out and receive toys at Target.

Kiwanis has fellowship activities like a family picnic, Bees Night Out, feather party bingo and Kiwanis Fun Night.

The Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast was created in 1989 when President Steve Staebell appointed Jerry Courtney to chair a major effort to raise funds for projects and bring Kiwanians together outside the routine of meetings to work on a common project.

Now held each Memorial Day Weekend at the Port of Burlington in conjunction with the nationally publicized Snake Alley Criterium bicycle races, the Pancake Breakfast has generated exceptional profits helping area children.

Major sponsors include Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center, Hy-Vee, McDonalds, Subway, Deery Brothers, Refreshment Services Pepsi, Prairie Farms Dairy, plus many more.

To learn more, visit burlingtonkiwanis.com

Hawk Eye correspondent Bob Saar contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast is Saturday at Port of Burlington