COAL GROVE — For the last four decades or so the Coal Grove Lion’s Club has picked the Saturday before Easter to bring the community together for some neighborliness, a good cause and a stack of flapjacks.

The club’s annual pancake breakfast in the Dawson-Bryant High School cafetorium was a prime opportunity for all three.

“I came for the pancakes,” Effie McKenzie, of Coal Grove, said. “I come every year. I like to support the Lions Club. I’m a member of the Betterment Club.”

The Lions Club’s Alvin Boyd watched folks stroll in and collected their tickets. The fundraiser is also a chance to say hello to friends.

“We see the same people come every year,” he said.

Tom Brammer, who manned the pancake griddle, gave credit to “two battermakers and a sausage cook” for keeping the operation flowing as smoothly as the batter. He credited Boyd with keeping this tradition alive.

“Alvie Boyd does everything and won’t take credit for it. He takes care of everything and we just show up,” Brammer said.

Brammer could take credit for putting smiles on the faces of the kids. In addition to those plain, round pancakes favored by the adults, he managed to dribble the batter just right and make a few Easter bunnies too.

The Lion’s Club was aided again this year by Boy Scout Troop 103 and Cub Scout Pack 103, of Deering.

The young men, in neatly pressed uniforms, waited tables and help patrons with those plates of pancakes.

Nine-year-old Jordan Case said he didn’t mind the work but found cleaning up the tables “sticky” because of the syrup.

The annual event raises roughly $2,200 for scholarships for area students, to fund sight programs and aid the Dawson-Bryant athletic boosters and band boosters.