Lincoln Kiwanis Club provides smiles for over 60 years with pancakes

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — For many making breakfast in the morning is a common routine, but for members of the Lincoln Kiwanis Club making pancakes is an art passed down from generation to generation.

The nonprofit has prided itself in serving the community this stable meal for over 6o years.

This year’s pancake festival was the first in the past two years since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is picking up from where we were a few years ago,” said Kiwanis president-elect Marc Shkolnick. “We had a surge here from 8 a.m. to 9.”

Many of the volunteers were excited to be back in the Auld Recreation Center to see the excitement on the faces of guests.

“It feels great to see people enjoying themselves, to see people’s smiles,” said Shkolnick. “When you see people coming together some sense of normalcy is great.”

For most of the morning, visitors lined up at the center doors to be served a warm meal with many others getting back in line for seconds.

“We wanna make sure that everyone leaves full and happy,” said Shkolnick. “Everybody’s having a good experience and obviously if we can raise some money to support these activities, that’s a goal as well.”

Donations were accepted at the event with proceeds going to fund club sports in Lincoln for the next year.

“Just coming back from having two years off, we want people to have a great time, a memorable time,” said Shkolnick.

Shkolnick said the success of the festival is thanks to the volunteers who have been doing the event since the time it was held at the Pershing Center.

As a type of yearly tradition of Kiwanis, the older members teach the younger how to make the best pancakes.

Pancakes that have people leaving with full stomachs and wide smiles.