Strawberry Days have come and gone for the year. 127 years of the Festival are now history and planning for year 128 will begin. Mark your calendars for June 20, 21, and 22, 2025.
After weeks of selling tickets, planning, and preparing, the Pancake Breakfast finally arrived. Selling tickets, Pie Day, the Parade, and everything leading up to the event was complete. Fundraising Chair Brad Plantz met with downtown businesses, confirmed orders with Travis at the Riviera and Justin at the BlueBird, and the plan was set. The volunteer list was filled up and tasks were assigned. The day was finally here. With over 400 tickets handed out at the parade and another 250 in patrons' hands, it was time to get cooking.
It was great to see the vast majority of our members present for the Pancake Breakfast. From setup starting at 5AM (thanks Brad and Joe), to the early arrival crew at 6ish and all the Rotarians and family members who assisted, what a great turnout. From setup to tear down, it was a well-oiled machine. The lines were steady throughout the day, but never a long wait. Patrons were happy and the food and smiles were abundant.
Thank you to the Cub Scouts and Carbondale Rotary Club for providing extra hands. It was great that we had every shift covered and that we could pack up and be on our way before noon.
Charlene has processed most of the numbers from the weekend and it looks like we will be up from last year. We will have a wrap up meeting Thursday, June 27, at 9AM at the BlueBird Cade. Everyone is invited to attend and offer input and suggestions for 2025. The BlueBird provided all the coffee for our breakfast and we can show them a little love with our wrap-up meeting.
We will also celebrate our efforts with a happy hour celebration at Riviera. We will get the date and word out after our wrap-up meeting. Travis at the Riviera provided his space. warmers, and helped with the purchasing of all our product for the event.
Fundraising Chair Plantz can put another feather in his cap. Now the Foundation Board can allocate the funds to the Club and Grants Chair Jim Ingraham and the Committee can get to work on putting our hard earned dollars to work.
Thank you to everyone for making the weekend successful! It was great to see how well things went. As we close the books on the 2023-24 Rotary Year, we definitely closed out on a high note.