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KEARNEY – 400 and counting.
That’s the number of tickets Charlie Pickens has sold for the Kiwanis Pancake Feed set for 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Exhibit Hall at the Buffalo County Fairgrounds at 3807 N Ave.
That’s not bad for his 55th consecutive event. Pickens has been chairing the event since 1968. He used to sell 500 tickets, give or take, when he was chair of the Department of Math and Science at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. “People were fair game when I was on campus,” he joked.
He’s retired now, but he’s still selling. In 2019, he sold 562 tickets, up substantially from the 450 he sold in 2018. In 2021, when the feed was pushed back to May 1 due to COVID-19, he sold 533.
Pickens
The annual event raises an average of $8,000 that is split among the city‘s three Kiwanis Clubs — the Noon Club, Dobytown Kiwanis and Golden K Kiwanis — for community projects.
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In the kitchen Saturday will be 60 volunteers, with 20 at each of three shifts, plus members of the Key Club at Kearney Catholic High School. Last year, they served 1,700 plates.
A serving of buckwheat pancakes, a sausage patty and beverages (water, tea, coffee or orange drink) will cost $7 for adults and $3.50 for children in grades K-5. A second sausage patty costs 50 cents. Children aged 5 and under are free.
At the door, tickets cost $8 for adults and $4 for children.
Also at the event, the Golden K club will hold a garage sale, and the Kearney Literacy Council will have a book sale.
The annual Kiwanis Pancake Day started in the late 1940s. Locations have included the basement of the old Presbyterian Church and the Kearney Volunteer Fire Station and both the old and new armories.
After 9/11, public events no longer could be conducted in armories, so Kiwanis moved the pancake feast to the Buffalo County Fairgrounds. It’s been there for 22 years.
On average, the event requires roughly 325 pounds of flour, 40 cases of sausage patties, 11 cases of donated syrup and 10 large cans of coffee. The flour used to come from Cooper Mills in Humboldt. It is closed now, “but we still use their buckwheat pancake recipe,” Pickens said. He said bags of that flour are available at Hy-Vee and the Apple Market.
The price of tickets has inched upward, too, from $5.50 in 2018 to $6 in 2019. Now it’s $7 in advance and $8 at the door.
Tickets can be purchased at ABC Drug at 2123 Central Ave. or by calling Pickens at 308-237-7459.
