Salisbury Kiwanis members flip flapjacks to kick off pancake festival ticket sales

Published 12:01 am Saturday, March 5, 2022

SALISBURY — From gas to groceries, most daily staples are more expensive in 2022 than one year ago.

Not so for Kiwanis Pancake Festival tickets, says Salisbury club president Kyle Yoder.

“It’s the only non-inflationary ticket that you can buy in 2022,” Yoder said Friday during the Salisbury Kiwanis Club’s kickoff for pancake festival ticket sales.

Tickets for this year’s fundraiser, which raises about $25,000 yearly to fund the club’s charitable efforts, remain $5. The club will have a drive-thru pancake festival at the J.F. Hurley YMCA on Friday, April 22, from 5 to 8 p.m. and Saturday, April 23, from 8 to 11 a.m. Tickets can be purchased from festival sponsors, Kiwanis members, the YMCA service desk or on-site during the festival.

The club hopes to return to indoor seating that fills up the YMCA’s gym in 2023, but is keeping the event drive-thru only as a health precaution. There will not be any indoor seating or eating this year.

To kick off ticket sales on Friday, the club held a pancake race, with members wearing aprons and flipping flapjacks as they walked briskly across a dining room at the Country Club of Salisbury. After an early flapjack fumble by Ann Eidson, the F&M Bank team came back to claim victory over a Catawba College team.

The Kiwanis Pancake Festival started in 1957. Although take-out containers have always been available, 2022 is only the second year that the Kiwanis Club is hosting an entirely take-out event. Last year’s festival resulted in 990 take-out containers served. The club says it’s making some logistical improvements to lower wait times for those in the drive-thru line.

The Salisbury Kiwanis Club sponsors Terrific Kid and the Bring Up Grades program at eight Rowan County elementary schools, K-Kids at Isenberg Elementary and Key Clubs at Carson, East Rowan, North Rowan and Salisbury High schools.

In the 2020-2021 year, the club awarded four $1,000 Key Club scholarships, celebrated its 100th anniversary and supported a range of programs or organizations, including the Communities in Schools Banner Campaign,  Samaritan’s Feet Project at Granite Quarry Elementary School, the Partners in Learning capital campaign, ApSeed, Crosby Scholars and the Livingstone College Bridge Program

To inquire about joining the Salisbury Kiwanis Club, email Tom McElveen at tmcelveen@gmail.com.