Two hours just wasn’t enough time to push through the hundreds and hundreds of pancake lovers who converged on Krause Berry Farms Sunday morning.
For the 14th year running, Alf and Sandee Krause hosted a fundraising breakfast with Santa and weather is partly to blame or credit for the huge crowd that turned out, said Sandee, scanning the crowd and smiling.
Krause breakie
“This is our 14th year flipping pancakes in memory of Liz Krause,” Sandee explained. Liz is Alf’s late wife, who passed away in the late 1990s of breast cancer.
Sandee elaborated: “We host a pancake breakfast July 1 and with Santa the second Sunday in December to raise funds towards finding a cure for breast cancer.”
This year’s Christmas breakfast raised $4,683.40 for the cause – bringing the total since 2003 to more than $45,000.
For Sandee, she’s just so excited to see families of all sizes, young and old, “spending time together knowing many were remembering someone dear to them,” she said.
“These two events not only offer hot and delicious pancakes but a place to physically do something towards a cure, together we get one step closer.”
Staff and volunteers were once again key to the success of the fundraiser, interjected Alf, who said one of highlights in the day for him was seeing the eagerness on the staff and volunteers faces as they prepared for the guests to arrive.
Then, going to open the gate a half an hour early, he said he was floored to see 80 some cars full of people waiting to come in and support the event.
Throngs of people just kept coming for hours and hours. The crowds of supporters didn’t actually start dissipating until well into the mid-afternoon.
One family of four sent Krauses a thank you letter the same day as the event.
“All the staff and volunteers I encountered maintained their Christmas cheer, despite the crowd they had to contend with. A really well done event for a very good cause,” noted Ian, Cary, Isabel, and Isaac.
“We arrived about 10:30 and the line-up was huge, winding all the way to the parking lot. The people working did an amazing job of moving the line along. The kids were quite excited to have pancakes with Smarties in them and the blueberry on the pancakes was delicious.”
While there is so much thanks deserving to all the people working tirelessly to pull off the event, Sandee said, she added: “We certainly couldn’t do this event without guests like them, so we thank them and all of the guests who came out for this event.”
