The Peterborough Rotary Club says it is not holding its annual Easter pancake breakfast this year, and may not bring it back next year. The nearly 50-year tradition was one of the club’s longest-running fundraisers.
“This was a really tough choice,” Rotary Treasurer Kim Chandler said Monday. “The board really struggled with whether to hold this breakfast or not.”
This is the first time in 48 years the club is not holding the Easter morning breakfast. Chandler said the club plans to assess whether or not to reinstate the tradition next year. The club is in a transitional period, she said, and membership is currently down to about 30 members. Club members were concerned there would not have been enough staff to run the annual breakfast, she said. The club has also seen attendance flag over the years.
“I wasn’t around when the breakfast started in 1971, but at that time, 400 to 600 people would come through for breakfast. Those numbers have really dropped,” Chandler said.
Participation has dropped in part because there are more Easter morning events that compete with the breakfast, she said.
“We need to take a year to look at what we’re doing and assess if it’s still working,” she said.
Last year, the breakfast raised about $9,000 – about $1,500 of which was from ticket sales. The majority of the income came from donations from local corporations, which were recognized with ads on the breakfast placemat.
The club plans to solicit for donations from those local corporations again this year, to continue to support their local charity work, Chandler said. They plan to recognize donors in an advertisement in the Ledger-Transcript, as well as in an event in the spring, she said.
“These businesses have supported us over the past 48 years, and it’s not about the pancakes,” Chandler said.
Donations from last year’s breakfast went to support multiple local programs, including the ConVal Quest Summer Program, Operation Santa, the Peterborough Food Pantry, ConVal’s End 68 Hours of Hunger, Windy Row Learning Center, Brantwood Camp, New Hampshire Honey Bee Initiative and the Peterborough Sunshine Fund.
The Rotary also supports ConVal students through scholarships and the International Exchange program.
Chandler said the club plans to work to invigorate its current membership and attract new members. The club recently changed its weekly meeting time from Monday at noon to Thursday morning at 7:30 a.m., in hopes more members can attend.
For more information about the Peterborough Rotary Club, or to make a donation, visit peterbororotary.org.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.