PANCAKE POWER
Popular breakfast raises funds for pensioners club
Breakfast raises money for Reserve Mines Pensioners Club.
Debby Parsons beams as she serves up steaming pancakes and sausages to the hungry customers that attended the pancake breakfast at the Reserve Mines Pensioners Club on Saturday morning.
“Everybody loves coming to this hall — it’s so pleasant here and it’s homey — it’s like a big kitchen party,” said Parsons. “People don’t mind waiting, they chat, have cups of tea and juice and the children are running around — it’s just lovely.”
Although the breakfast didn’t officially start until 9 a.m., some arrived early and sipped tea while they waited for their meal.
“It was jammed, right from the time we got here, there were people in here waiting for us as a matter of fact, sitting down having a cup of tea before we started cooking,” said Parsons. “That’s how people love it. It’s three sausages, two pancakes, oatcakes, tea and sometimes coffee if we have the kettle on. And juice. It’s $5 and you can’t beat it.”
It was just one of the events taking place for this year’s 19th annual Lambert Todd Days, probably Nova Scotia’s only summer festival held in honour of a dead race horse. The festival is named after Lambert Todd, the first community-owned racehorse in North America, purchased by a group of eight businessmen from Reserve Mines in 1929.
This year’s festival featured fireworks on Wednesday, a Chase the Ace, socials, a car show a dance and the everpopular junior firefighters competition at the fire hall for children.
“We have an obstacle course set up outside behind the station and we do it every year,” said Captain Tyler MacDonald of the Reserve Mines Volunteer Fire Department. “Every kid gets a prize and we draw on three bikes. This has been going on for quite a while.”
For Parsons and the hardworking crew back at the pancake breakfast, each meal served means more money going into their hall fund, which, along with two grants, is building a new kitchen for club.
“It’s a lot of work that everybody’s done to get this going — we’ve been trying for the last number of years to get it because we only have a small little kitchen now,” said Parsons, adding that the money raised will go towards a new stove and fridges.
“Not that long ago we bought a freezer out of our money. So every time we get some money built up we buy something and it keeps it going.”