Pancake Day canceled; DeWitt Rotary Club plans fundraiser

DEWITT – For 65 years The DeWitt Rotary Club’s Pancake Day has been a highly anticipated event in the community.
As spring approaches the members of the club are usually getting ready and starting to make plans for the coming Pancake Day, and many in the community are anxiously looking forward to the chance to enjoy this annual tradition.
“Pancake Day means a lot to us and it means a lot to people in our community,” Davis Yohe, a member of the DeWitt Rotary Club said. “It brings people together and helps generate new members. But most importantly it helps us raise funds for a lot of local organizations that depend on that fundraising.”
For many years funds raised from Pancake Day have helped organizations like the YMCA, David’s Refuge, the Samaritan Center, the Salvation Army, Arise, Symphoria, the Rescue Mission and Clear Path for Veterans among many others.
Due to COVID-19, the Rotary Club made the difficult decision to cancel this year’s Pancake Day.
“It was a challenge,” Yohe said. “This is important to us and we know how important it is to other people. And it is so important to those organizations that depend on that money we raise.”
Knowing the cancellation of Pancake Day would leave a void, the club began considering some alternative ideas that would still help serve as a fundraiser. With the help of Beth Coughlin of Cumulus Media, the club hit on the idea of a spring gift basket fundraiser.
“Beth and Cumulus Media have been great to work with, such a great help in planning and organizing all of this,” Yohe said.
Yohe, along with Kathy Kotz and Carolyn Hendrickson, is serving as co-chair of the gift basket fundraiser, an idea Yohe said the Rotary Club as well as many in the community have been very supportive of.
The basket, which will be on sale for $75 will contain a number of locally sourced items including a dozen roses in their own gift box, wine, essential oils, pancake mix, maple syrup, coffee coupon, and other special treats, Yohe said.
Additionally each basket will contain information on the Rotary Club as well as all the sponsoring businesses that are making this fundraiser possible.
“They will all be specially wrapped and the roses will be in their own packaging,” Yohe said. “It is a great deal. A lot of great items in the baskets and the value is much more than $75.”
Yohe said a limited number of baskets will be available with the hope to sell around 250 or possibly 300.
“We’re excited,” Yohe said. “We have had a great support for this from our sponsors and we hope this will be a successful event.”
Yohe said anyone interested in buying a basket or sponsoring this event can get more information from the club’s website, dewittrotary.org.