Pancakes were the breakfast of choice for 750 people last weekend at an annual fundraiser for the Lake County Family YMCA.
“It took six (pancakes) to fill me up,” said 6-foot-2-inch John Leccesi of Waukegan.
“We came because we support the Y. We participate a lot in Y programs,” said his wife Jean Leccesi. “We particularly support the camp.”
In its 30th year, the pancake breakfast annually jump-starts the fund for the Y’s Camp Jorn in Manitowish Waters, Wis. The breakfast raised $9,000, according to YMCA president Phillip R. Baaske of Waukegan.
The breakfast, held at the Y in Waukegan, is followed by a month-long Earn-Your-Way-to-Camp Candy Sale, which this year runs from March 19 through April 23.
It raised needed cash, but the breakfast was more than a fundraiser, according to Richard Ribando, chairman of the Camp Jorn board of managers. “It’s also a thank you to the community for their support,” he said.
As a result, this is one pancake breakfast that is minus the long buffet line. Teenage volunteers, most of them former campers who have returned as junior counselors, served people sitting at dozens of picnic tables in the Y’s gym.
“It’s neat,” said camp director Dennis Lipp. “I’m the only staff member working here. These are all volunteers,” he said, pointing to the men working the kitchen line and servers carrying food trays.
Asked why she gave up sleeping in to serve pancakes, Libertyville High School junior Jill Foley, 16, a junior counselor at the camp, said, “I love Camp Jorn. Any time I can help I do.”
Even the cooks were former campers. “I started going to Jorn when I was 6. That was a couple of years after it opened (1953),” Park City resident Bob Haymaker said as he turned sausages.
Farther down the line, former camper Gerry Topcik of the Wadsworth area, who was flipping pancakes with Haymaker’s brother Phil of Waukegan, talked about why he helped. “I believe in what they’re trying to do: to give youngsters who otherwise couldn’t afford it an outdoor experience in the North Woods,” Topcik said.