Kiwanis Club's pancake day to raise funds for Bacon Park upgrades

Pancakes and Kiwanis are a recipe for success for youngsters in the Poplar Bluff area.

Children are the primary focus for the local Kiwanis Club and for 81 years, the club members have hosted an annual pancake day to raise funds to benefit them.

This year’s event will be from 6 a.m. to noon Saturday, March 16, at the Poplar Bluff Junior High School and the club members are offering others an opportunity to assist them in helping youth.

Sponsorships are available for the bronze level for $100, which includes an ad on the placemat and 10 free tickets, or the gold level for $200 includes a double-sized placemat ad and 20 free tickets.

Funds raised will be used to create a safe playground environment “for all children, of all capabilities to come together to play,” said club member Meredith Rines. “The Kiwanis Club saw a need in our community and felt as if we should come together. Our children deserve a place to play, to be a kid and to just have a good time. We want the Kiwanis Bacon Memorial Park to fill a void that our community was missing.”

Money from the event will be used in the development of the second phase of the park.

This phase “will bring additional all-inclusive play equipment into the park,” Rines said, which “will connect to make a large playground built with pour-and-play rubber surface to create a safer area for our kids and a surface for wheelchairs, walkers or crutches to easily travel on.”

Rines believes “Kiwanis has been a lasting organization thanks to our members. Kiwanis Club of Poplar Bluff has been one of the longest-lasting civic groups in town thanks to our approach to get involved for the community and to welcome new members. Our main focus is our community’s children and the children of the world. Locally, we put our efforts into the Kiwanis Bacon Memorial Park so that our community’s children can have a safe environment to be a kid. We want a place where children and adults can go to play and spend time together with family and friends.”

“Once we have enough then we will install Phase II and then see where that takes us. We have the opportunity to keep developing and updating the park as needed,” Rines said,

The club members support other local organizations by holding drives and events throughout the year.

“Each winter we collect pajamas for Foster Adopt Connect to help children in foster care,” she said. “We collect diapers and other items throughout the year, too, to benefit foster children. We also host our Wolf Creek Trail Run each spring and our annual Nashville Christmas Concert in December.”

The property for Bacon Memorial Park was a gift to the Poplar Bluff Kiwanis Club in 1948 by the late Carrie Bacon Turner in honor of her husband, David Bacon, and her son, Fay Bacon. Fay was a charter member of the club. The park is located between West Pershing and West Harper streets east of Business Highway 67 and the Poplar Bluff Middle School.

Anyone interested in helping sponsor the event contact may Rines at 573-686-3053 for tickets or sponsorship availability. Tickets for the pancake breakfast may be purchased in advance from any club member or at the door the day of the event.