Pancake Breakfast

On Saturday, some friends and I from the Yolo Community Network (and really Becky and her family in particular!) together with the Down Syndrome Information Alliance put on a pancake breakfast for families in our Down Syndrome community. We've done smaller get-togethers, potlucks, playdates, a holiday party last year for about 35 people, but nothing on this scale. We had about 180 people RSVP plus 15-20 volunteers to help. I have to admit, some of us were a little anxious about how things would go. Despite some glitches along the way, it was a great success and a lot of fun.

Landon

Marcus

Noah

This was not a fund-raiser as most pancake breakfasts are. The idea was to have a get-together for the whole family with food, crafts, games and Santa, see old friends and meet new ones. I overheard one mom say, as her child was behaving in a way that was not consistent with what she'd wanted, "At least here everybody understands". Yes! That is a huge part of the point of getting together like this-- if your child has texture issues and won't put a pancake in her mouth, you will be around people who "get it". If your child has some sensory issues, clings (as mine did for a while), makes unusual noises, fears Santa, whatever, you will be in a whole room full of people who understand that and don't bat an eyelash. That's one of the nice things about getting together like this.

Sadly, we didn't have a working microphone, so I didn't get the opportunity to thank everybody publicly at the event. I really want to thank the Crews family for planning and cooking, Danielle Bobadilla for helping out with eggs, Jennifer Enriquez for the crafts, Magpie Catering for the sausages, the Collings West Sacramento Teen Center for donating the space, and the wonderful volunteers from the pre-med/pre-vet fraternity and from Kaiser, as well as Heather Green, Lisa Lindsey and DSIA for sponsoring and advertising the event as well as recruiting the volunteers! A huge thanks to pastor Douglas Zeck of the New Testament Church in Woodland (AKA Marcus' grandpa) for playing Santa (he'd be the Caucasian Santa pictured above), and to Ricky Mayfield for filling in when a family missed the announcement that Santa was wrapping up (he'd be the African American Santa pictured above).

So, now that we've gotten through the first annual pancake breakfast, I'm ready to start thinking about the second one!