JAMESVILLE — The Jamesville-DeWitt area’s Scout Troop and Pack 22 combined to host their 20th annual pancake breakfast at the Southwood Volunteer Fire Department Saturday, April 5.
For that community breakfast held from 8 a.m. to noon in the John D. Curtis Meeting Room of the fire station on Grace Place in Jamesville, the scouts themselves stacked pancakes on plates with servings of sausage links and eggs off the grill while setting out hot coffee and cups of orange juice and milk.
Throughout the event and after it was done, the scouts kept themselves busy as they opened doors for people entering or leaving, wiped down tables, pushed in chairs, and swept the floors so the station would look as clean as it did beforehand.
Groups and businesses make donations and support the scouts with efforts like gift basket raffles ahead of the event to cover costs for materials and meal ingredients.
With the help from those sponsors and the attendees that morning, Troop and Pack 22 are able to break even and then on top of that raise over $1,000 annually most recent years to put toward operating costs associated with transportation, tents, and other Scouting equipment and season-to-season activities.
The April 5 breakfast welcomed walk-ins and people who bought tickets ahead of time, a certain number getting family discounts.
That Jamesville station is where leaders of the local troop and pack hold their meetings and store some of their equipment. A few who are heads of the troop are involved with the fire department itself too, including the fire chief, Tom Bouvia, who has served as treasurer for Troop 22.
Lyle Halbert, the assistant scout leader for Troop 22, said he likes that the tradition of holding the pancake breakfast fundraiser has continued as a shared event that joins together the pack side and the troop side, which typically are run separately year-round.
Halbert said the event is also a way for his boys in the troop to demonstrate leadership and work as one cohesive unit alongside the parents and other volunteers.
He said the morning event generates “good will” and visibility for Scouting as well as camaraderie and team building, so even if not a single dime was made, it would be successful in more ways than one.
Halbert said it’s also a way for people to see something going on at the fire station, which leads them to ask questions about the department and its own volunteerism.
Dana Dietz, the Pack 22 Cubmaster, said he enjoys seeing the younger and older kids interact among themselves and with the outside community during the breakfast.
Pack and Troop 22 like to show with the event that they aren’t always in the wilderness. They also organize roadside cleanups, food drives to stock the Jamesville Food Pantry, and snowbox and pinewood derbies in addition to campouts.
While on camping trips, the scouts practice cooking, fishing and tying different useful types of knots while dealing with homesickness, some distancing from technology, and all kinds of weather conditions.
Dietz’ son Owen, a member of the Cub Scouts, said he likes “going on adventures,” hiking and just generally being outdoors as part of the pack.
Will Hougland, the assistant senior patrol leader for Troop 22, has been a scout for 11 years now and has participated in the pancake breakfast almost every one of those years.
Hougland, who was out front serving plates to people this year, said being a scout has gotten him out of his comfort zone, helped him with his public speaking, and taught him how to be responsible.
The pack of kindergarteners through fifth graders comprises both boys and girls as one group, then once they cross over to being in the troop, they split off into separate boys and girls groups.
