HANALEI — Caelica Covel had one goal last weekend — sell between 800 and 1,000 tickets for pancake breakfasts. Covel, the chair for the North Shore Lions Club Pancakes and Breakfast, had her entire family helping at the popular community
HANALEI — Caelica Covel had one goal last weekend — sell between 800 and 1,000 tickets for pancake breakfasts.
Covel, the chair for the North Shore Lions Club Pancakes and Breakfast, had her entire family helping at the popular community gathering.
“We know where the good food is,” said Bob Bashara of Grosse Pointe, Mich. “We left the ladies back at the condo and came here so we could eat with the locals. Where can you get all of this for just $8?”
A steady stream of people flowed through the doors of the Hanalei School cafeteria, undeterred by the sprinkling showers that drizzled throughout the morning.
“This year’s been great,” Covel said. “We have more than a hundred items for the silent auction including a bag from Cake (in Kilauea) that’s valued at $400.”
Covel said some of the bigger items came from Two Frogs Hugging, the St. Regis at Princeville and the Waimea Plantation Cottages.
Proceeds from the annual fundraiser, which featured performances by Naomi Yokotake and her halau, go toward community projects like the recently completed bus shelter in Kilauea, Covel said.
“We also fund the ‘Sight is Beautiful’ poster contest at the schools, conduct sight and hearing screenings, sponsor the Boy Scouts of America, Aloha Council Troop 828, the Kaua‘i Police Activities League youth basketball program in Kilauea, and provide scholarships for graduating high school seniors with emphasis on those who live in the North Shore,” she said.
Other projects include requests from the Hanalei and Kilauea elementary schools for their projects, and more recently, Covel said the Lions raised thousands of dollars for the American Red Cross.
But the event could not be successful without the volunteers and Covel was quick to point out that Sherry Scott, the principal for Kilauea Elementary School, came to help serve.
Covel said she’s just the chair. There are numerous other people who help like Jay Furfaro who left his gavel at the Kaua‘i County Council so he could work with Portuguese sausage, “Eggmaster” Mike Loo and Conrad Schmidt who labeled himself “Batter Boy.”
Schmidt said by 9 a.m. they had already gone through more than 20 gallons of pancake batter with no end in sight.
Harry Conti and Dick Gott made sure the dishes were washed, a task Covel said she was not fond of, Tom Trombley was there early to make the coffee, and Odie Dill was doing all the driving around collecting everything.
“We’ve had more Lions than any other year,” Covel said, noting some who came from the Westside like Eric Nordmeier who brought three baskets to acknowledge the work of North Shore Lions with a mayoral certificate for their volunteerism.
“We had a shindig like this for tsunami relief where we honored community volunteers and these were nominated but couldn’t make it,” Nordmeier said.
“They were too busy volunteering.”
Visit www.kauainorthshorelions.org for more information.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.
