Proper waste management is a focus for organizers
For more than six decades, the DeWitt Rotary Club has been bringing thousands of people together to support the Rotary’s mission of “service above self” while enjoying an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast.
The 63rd annual DeWitt Rotary Pancake Day will be held from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 13, under the large tents set up at the ShoppingTown Mall parking lot. Tickets are $5 each in advance or $8 at the door, and can be purchased from contacting a DeWitt Rotarian or online at dewittrotary.org/PancakeDay.cfm.
Patrons of the event get the chance to indulge in a breakfast of freshly made pancakes that come plain, or with blueberries, chocolate chips or M&Ms, sausage, coffee donated by Dunkin’ Donuts, as well as juice and milk donated by Byrne Dairy.
The breakfast event is the only fundraiser the DeWitt Rotary holds each year and all of the proceeds are used by the Rotary to hold service projects and donate to local organizations to improve the community. On average, there is a net profit of nearly $40,000 at each year’s event and more than 4,000 people consistently attended the event annually.
To raise money for the event, the DeWitt Rotary sells advertising space in their yearly print publication, “The Flapjack Review,” which gives an overview of the DeWitt Rotary’s past year. Much of the food and breakfast supplies are donated from local businesses.
Raffles will be held at the event, which include items donated from community business and organizations. Bottles of maple syrup will be sold for $5 each and all proceeds will go toward the eradication of polio worldwide.
One thing Cheryl Matt, president of the DeWitt Rotary and Mark Strodel, co-chair of the Pancake Day fundraising committee, want to highlight this year is the Rotary’s efforts in ensuring they are using eco-friendly practices and are able to minimize the impact of waste from the event.
“The event is so large that we want to make a big effort to try to recycle and compost when we can,” said Matt.
Since 2009, the DeWitt Rotary began to work with the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency (OCRRA) to recycle and separate food waste to reduce the impact of trash that is sent to local landfills from the event. The purpose is to recycle and compost not only the paper products such as plates, cups and napkins, but milk cartons, empty sugar packets and all the discarded food refuse, and to separate the plastic utensils to properly be disposed of. Volunteers from OCRRA, local Boy Scout Troops and Rotarians will be on hand the day of the breakfast to help people throw away their trash in the appropriate places.
According to an article in the 2016 “Flapjack Review,” OCRRA is able to help compost and recycle a majority of the waste at the event, and has reduced landfill waste to only a few 30-gallon garbage bags. After the event is over, Strodel said Art Diamond, owner of Property Restorations Services, donates the use of two trucks to bring the waste to the OCRRA facilities.
For more information, go to dewittrotary.org or search “Rotary Club of DeWitt, NY” on Facebook.
