Would you? Could you? Eat pancakes

In search of a signature fund-raising that will help provide financial support for its youth programs, staff with the Sampson County Partnership for Children has honed in on an event that promotes reading, offers a little fun and provides nourishment, all while money is being raised.

The Sampson County Partnership for Children has chosen pancakes as its fundraising option, the “Pancakes with Dr. Seuss and Friends,” to be precise, an inaugural event being held March 8 at the Clinton Hwy. 55 at 201 W. Railroad St. in Clinton.

The dine-in or take out event will be held from 7 a.m. until 9:30 a.m., and tickets can be purchased at the Partnership for Children offices on West Main Street.

Also of note, Donna Jackson, the Partnership’s executive director, said tickets have to be purchased ahead of time to let Hwy. 55 staff know exactly how many were sold to ensure there’s enough food for all tickets purchased.

“We are trying to find a signature fundraiser, you might say, one big fundraiser that supports all the programs that we offer,” Jackson stressed. “All of our programs are low income (based), and so we’re trying to build our funds to support any needs that we might have with our programs that our original funds from the state will not cover.”

All proceeds from the event will go toward Partnership-sponsored programs that benefit Sampson’s youngest citizens. Programs such as NC Pre-K, Parents As Teachers, Scholarship Subsidy, Triple P (Positive Parenting Program) and Child Care WAGE$.

The event breakfast includes pancakes, sausage and bacon. Tickets are $10 per plate, and those who purchase one are automatically entered into a drawing for a $500 pellet grill donated by Tractor Supply.

Jackson said she and the Partnership staff were doing everything to make the breakfast a celebratory fund-raising, including themed-costumes that honor Dr. Seuss and his characters, as well as Read Across America.

“The entire idea behind all this is to create a positive interaction event for the children,basically,” Jackson said. “We wanted to make it child-friendly, that’s why we’re dressing up. And trust me, I’m going to feel silly because I’m going to be Cindy Lou with a yellow wig on top of my head, the real stacked wig. All our staff are dressing up, we’ve got the Grinch, Dr. Seuss and a variety of characters just to make it fun for the children.”

Jackson offered her gratitude to the local Hwy. 55 for its support of the event as well.

“Hwy 55 has been such a positive supporter and we’re so grateful for their support,” she added. “It’s doing so much to help us be successful with this. We’re hoping this will be our signature fundraiser every year, the one main one we do, instead of a bunch of little fundraisers.”

Not only is Dr. Seuss at the forefront of this event, it also coincides with Read Across America Week, and Jackson said they’re planning to have related activities for the children as well.

“We may have some reading activities for the children, and we’ll have some books there,” Jackson said. “Even if most of the people probably won’t stay long, since they’ll probably get the plate to go, we will have things available.”

Jackson said the idea for the pancake breakfast and the raffle came to fruition as staff was looking for an event that would draw a lot of people.

“Well, we had looked at some other things, and we felt they did not look like something maybe Clinton would be interested in,” Jackson said. “We know there’s a couple of other pancake breakfast events around Sampson County. We happen to be visiting over at Hwy 55 just looking for sponsors and things, because we have been out and about the community working to build our sponsorships. That’s when we were given the idea about doing a pancake breakfast at Hwy 55, which they’ve helped host many times to help other businesses.

“We also added in that someone can win a grill, thanks to Tractor Supply donating a $500 pellet grill, which you can win through buying a ticket,” she added. “So to me, the $10 goes a long way because you’re also getting three pancakes, two pieces of sausage, two pieces of bacon and a drink of your choice.”

While buying a ticket gets you a chance to win the grill, Jackson did want this tidbit known about announcing the winner.

“We won’t draw for the grill until thefollowing Monday (March 10), because that Saturday, is going to be real hectic,” she said. “So we just figured we’d wait when things settle down, and we’ll do it live on Facebook, where we’ll draw for the grill that morning.”

While this year the fundraising is a March event, Jackson said they have talked about changing the date next year to December.

“We may end up moving this towards Christmas next year, during the parade time,” she said. “That way it will be more in line with the theme of Christmas because a lot of the Grinch stuff is geared towards Christmas. So we thought maybe that would help next year, moving it. We’re not real sure yet, but we’d like to provide something for people while they’re already in town, for like the Christmas parade.”

She continued. “Either way, with the pancake breakfast, we’re just trying out different fundraisers. We‘ve been thinking lately that it’s just better to go with one big fundraiser. It’s just tough when you go to the same people and ask for money over and over. So you need one big fundraiser and we think this’ll be fun for the children, and that’s the main thing — to make it fun and supportive for the community and getting people together for the purpose of helping the children.”