| History Bulletin:
This was a history given by Jim Shurtz at the Clubs 60th Aniversary banquet. |
Kiwanis Club of Mt. Vernon
History of the 1940’s Decade
Mt. Vernon Register News headline: “Kiwanis Club Formed in Mt.V
Last Night. Russell Wielt Elected President of New Service Club.
Other Officers Named.”
The beginning. The date of this newspaper is April 5, 1941.
I’m sure some meetings were held earlier than this because forming a new
club doesn’t happen instantly. It takes time and effort by some very
dedicated individuals. However April 4 is recognized as our clubs
organizational date. Our official charter night was May 23.
That is when we officially became a Kiwanis club.
There was a lot going on in April and May of 1941. The war in
Europe was underway and the Yankees’ Joe Dimagio started his 56 game hitting
streak. Why did 36 men gather that spring and decide the community
of Mt. Vernon needed a Kiwanis Club? These 36 charter members gave
us our start. They are listed on the back of your program.
Please take a few minutes to look through the list. I’m sure you
knew a lot of them. Who gave them the nudge to start a new club?
Well, down through the years it has been common knowledge that the Kiwanis
Club of McLeansboro came over and got the ball rolling. They were
chartered in 1936 by the Carmi Club, which was chartered in 1923.
Along with them was a representative of Kiwanis International, Mr. Robert
R. Lafallette. He was a charter member of the Champaign, Illinois
club, which was chartered in 1921. However, doing some research I
found out that some members of the Centralia Club was also on hand.
Centralia was chartered in September, 1940. This article in the April
5, 1941 newspaper stated that the meeting the following week would be held
at Hunts Café and be conducted by the McLeansboro Club. But
at the next week’s meeting the Centralia Club would be doing the honors
of conducting the meeting. I hope its is not too late, but thank
you Centralia for your help.
To find the next news of the brand new Kiwanis Club, I had to jump forward
to August, 1941 when they conducted their first service project.
They donated clothing, shoes, and other needed items to three children
at the orphanage. Quite a humble beginning to such a great club.
In October of that first year a few of the members traveled down to West
Frankfort and helped get that club started. I assume Mr. Lafallette
was also on hand. The sponsoring club usually gives a gift
to the new club being formed. Our club could have given a U.S. Savings
Bond to the West Frankfort guys because they had just been introduced to
the public. I can’t find much information on the rest of the year
about our club. It was apparently spent praying and reflecting on
Europe and Japan as the year ended, as you all know, with “the day that
will live in infamy.”
Things really picked up the next year - 1942, however. Last week
we held a basketball banquet for the players and cheerleaders at Mt. Vernon
High School. In April of 1942 the club sponsored their first basketball
banquet. One hundred and eighty-six people attended. Have we
done this every year since? As for as I know we have. There
may have been a year or two when for some unknown reason we failed to sponsor
the banquet, but I think I can say with some confidence that this year
was the 59th anniversary of that project. In July and August of 42
the planning of the first fund raiser was in high gear. A radio jamboree
featuring KMOX radio personality Pappy Cheshire was held and big bucks
were raised - $350. The orphanage must have been a major concern
of our club in those early years because they invited all the kids to the
show for free, and the article didn’t say, but they probably wore their
new shoes. The radio jamboree was a fundraiser for several years.
The jamboree along with a minstrel show would become the pancake day and
shake up stand of the 40’s. These two major fundraisers for the club
lasted the entire decade. With the proceeds from these two projects
the club started and maintained “the finest library of vocational guidance
in the state” as stated by as article in the program from the 1951 Minstrel
Show. They later gave it to Zadok Casey Junior High School.
Still there Al?
|
This is a History of Pancake and Sausage Day.
Kiwanis Club of Mt. Vernon
Pancake and Sausage Day
It all started in 1951. The Kiwanis Club
of Mt.Vernon, which was ten years old at the time, needed a fundraiser.
They had been performing a minstrel show for a few years and made a good
profit, but that ended in the late forties. A travelogue program
lasted a few years, but soon people tired of it. Kiwanian Norm Garbers
suggested a pancake and sausage breakfast. The whole club got involved.
They made the pancake batter from scratch. They bought several hogs
and had them ground into sausage and had to scoop it out of large tubs
and make their own patties. The hot coffee was served from pots borrowed
from individual members. That was the first Pancake and Sausage Day
for the Kiwanis Club of Mt.Vernon. This year on March 1 will be the
fifty-second annual Kiwanis Pancake and Sausage Day in Mt. Vernon.
A lot has changed in those 52 years, and a lot has stayed the same.
The batter comes out of a box now. The sausage comes already made
into patties. The coffee is perked with the clubs own giant automatic
coffee maker. We’ve moved from the Mt. Vernon National Guard Armory
to the Rolland W. Lewis Community Building in the City’s Veterans Park.
Two of the club’s older members, Mack Piper and J.R. Ansley, are still
around to help out and as far as I know have worked at all 52 pancake days.
Ticket prices have raised some over the years. From fifty cents in
the beginning to the current price of four dollars for all you can eat
doesn’t seem too inflationary.
A lot of work is involved in getting a hot
pancake on a plate for the people to enjoy. It starts in December
when the tickets are printed and ends when the storage shed door is closed
and every last item is stored away until next year. In between
there is planning schedules, reserving tables and chairs, calculating how
many supplies are needed, and much more. Ticket sales take place
throughout January and February. Every Kiwanis member has a packet
to sell. Hopefully, you have been asked by a Kiwanis member how many
tickets you need. Two days before the big day several members are
involved in setting up the kitchen at the Rolland W. Lewis Building in
preparation to feed 2500 plus people. Eight gas grills are brought
in and hooked up. The floor of the kitchen is covered with cardboard
to facilitate clean up. Over the years the Kiwanians have learned
that cooking sausage can cause quite a mess. Smoke and grease get
on everything. A tent is erected outside the building and the sausage
grills are set up there. This keeps the grease off the walls and
ceiling of the building. Now if we can find a way to keep it off
the Kiwanis cook, we got it made. The Rolland W. Lewis Building is
turned into a huge dining room the next day as 50 tables and 400 chairs
are lined up in rows and decked out with white table cloths,
place mats, and even a decorative flower center piece. The actual
day of the event starts at 4:00 AM for some of the Kiwanians as they arrive
at the park and get the grills fired up for the big day. During
that day a hectic pace is in store for many. The serving of hot coffee,
steaming pancakes, and sausage with just the right spices keeps the Kiwanians
on their toes. Take out orders are also available. The Kiwanis
sponsored Key Club from Mt. Vernon High School usually take care of those
takeout orders. The serving starts at 6:00 AM and ends at 2:00 PM.
With the help of most of the club cleaning up and putting everything away
takes another two to three hours of work after that.
When you buy a Kiwanis Pancake and Sausage
Day Ticket you get a good value for your money. You get all you can
eat for $4.00. You get to visit and gossip with friends. You
get to meet new friends. But don’t forget the most important thing
your $4.00 donation does. It allows the Kiwanis Club to keep going
another year. Providing service to the community as it has for 62
years. While you’re at the Veteran’s Park, look around. You
will see several projects of the Kiwanis Club. A white picket safety
fence at the playground, the north picnic shelter, picnic tables, park
benches, and the gazebo on the island in the middle of the park lake; all
Kiwanis projects. The pancakes you eat helps pay for these park projects.
It also helps pay for three scholarships to Rend Lake College each year.
It helps sponsor summer league baseball. It helps eliminate Iodine
Deficiency Disorder from the world. It provides for research in the
medical field of Spastic Paralysis in children. It helps send high
school Key clubbers to conventions to learn leadership and community service
for themselves. The list goes on and on. The Kiwanis Club of
Mt. Vernon provides service to our community as well as to the world community.
By attending pancake and sausage days for 52 years, you have helped make
it all possible. The Kiwanis Club appreciates your continued support. |
