Servitium serves up plates of pancakes

Published 7:30 pm Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Over the years, Brookhaven’s Servitium Club — once known as Kiwanis — has raised thousands of dollars for youth programs in the area. Since 1951, much of the money raised has been through the annual Tom Moak Memorial Pancake and Sausage Day.

The fundraiser will be Feb. 25 at First United Methodist Church from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. Plates are $7, and while the pancakes and sausage plates are available as take-out, people can also opt to stay in for all-you-can-eat pancakes. The event will take place in the ministry center at 212 South Jackson.

Jesiah Blauw, this year’s pancake chairman, said this year’s fundraiser will have an extra bit of Mardi Gras added.

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“It’s Fat Tuesday that same day,” Blauw said. “We’re going to kind of tie in a Mardi Gras theme in it. Not a whole lot, but we’ll have some beads there and some fun things for the kids.”

The Kiwanis Club was founded in 1921 by John Bent Perkins. The local group broke away from the national Kiwanis Club in 2013 and renamed itself Servitium — meaning “service to all” — in order to keep locally-raised money local. Tom Moak, for whom the fundraiser is named, was a consistent presence during Pancake day, attending every fundraiser from its inception in 1951 until his death in 2013.

While Servitium members are busy selling tickets to the event, the public can show up and purchase a plate without a ticket. Blauw said they are preparing supplies for about 1,000 plates.

“You can come for breakfast or a mid-morning snack, all the way up to dinner time,” Blauw said.