Braving winter’s (temporary) return, more than 500 people flocked to True Friends Camp Eden Wood on Sunday to attend the annual Eden Prairie Lions Club Pancake Breakfast.
The longtime event, organized for the first time by Lions Club member Barbara Hanson, offered a chance for community members to gather and support a good cause.
Accurately determining the number of attendees was one of Hanson’s priorities for the event, as previous years’ family ticket sales made it hard to know the exact number of attendees.
Hanson said on Monday that she is still crunching the numbers, but the unofficial tally for attendees is 525.
“I’m hoping we were financially as successful as in the past couple of years,” she wrote in an email. “Everyone seemed to have a good time, and the weather didn’t stop them.”
It is the club’s first fundraiser of the year, with other events planned throughout the summer. These include Schooner Days on June 2-4, beer and wine service during the city’s Fourth of July festivities, a golf tournament in August, and the Corn Feed on Aug. 5.
All profits generated from those events go back to the community, with no funds being used for club operations. The club’s entire operating budget is supported internally with funds from members.
Since July 1, 2019, the Eden Prairie Lions has donated more than $110,000 to various causes in the community, including public safety, scholarships, animal rescue, nature centers, and foundations for vision, hearing, and diabetes.
Longtime Lions Club member Gary Stevens thanked Hanson in an email to members for her efforts.
“We were responsible for a lot of smiles today,” he said.
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