Dear Scouts and Scout Parents,
As the subject of this email suggests, we had a very successful Pancake Breakfast yesterday, probably surpassing anything we had in previous years. So, let’s first congratulate each other that we have done a very good job in many respects: setting up on Thurs, Sat. and Sun, and carrying out the main event on Patriots Day. I am particularly impressed with the willingness of everyone present to help in any way they could, which makes the jobs of the coordinators so much easier. Given our resources, I don’t think we could do much better than we did. So, let me highlight the morning we had, and acknowledge a number of people that gave me special help throughout the whole process.
I estimate that we served about 1500 paying customers. We also served about 60 Minutemen at 3:30 am before they went to do the re-enactment, and I think it was highly appreciated on their part. Initially I worried that this early shift could mess up our kitchen routine for the regular shifts, but it turned out to be really easy and we could do things in an almost leisurely manner. For that, I should thank those early risers who made this possible. The regular customers arrived at around 6:20 am or so, and they came like a flash flood. I could not see the end of the line for the next 90 minutes. We were running at full capacity: coffee was refilled at an astonishing rate at the mobile greeting station that seemed to make the customers not mind waiting in line for 15 minutes or more. I could hear someone asking for more pancake batter every few minutes. One server was waiting for fresh pancakes to be delivered, and the VIP table kept asking for more of everything. At one point, I saw that the line was really short and no sooner did I declare that the
kitchen crew could relax a little, the line filled up again and we were running behind in pancakes once more.
We have also served between 100 to 150 VIPs, but we were so busy we lost count of how many. For a grand total of 1700 people, this was for sure the biggest crowd we have had. Despite having food items that were at least 10% more than year 2006 (last year’s was affected by the storm), we nearly ran out of many things. With 3300 sausages and 290 lbs of pancake mix (many thousands of pancakes), we just had a handful of leftovers. We ran out of decaf coffee and hot chocolate (which was quickly replenished with a trip to Stop & Shop). We almost ran out of paper plates! However, I have not heard major complaints from the customers because once they paid, the rest of the process was smooth sailing: the serving line was superb, the pancake supply was just in time, the drinks supply line was flowing smoothly, the tables were for most part cleared quickly and set up quickly again (only one comment overheard and related to me about a table not cleaned quickly enough), and in general they were happy. Thanks go to the efficient kitchen crew despite a grill with uneven heating zones, the food and drinks serving crew, the mobile greeting teams who kept the customers cheerful while waiting in line, the scouts who worked really hard on clearing the tables, taking out trash, mopping up wet and dirty floors, serving silverware or drinks, checking the toilets, and manning the syrup table and the cashier station.
I have to mention that this year we had at least 25% more sitting spaces (thanks go to the scouts who did the setup on Thursday), and therefore we felt understaffed in terms of enough scouts to do all those cleaning in time. As I said earlier, we were running at essentially full capacity and everyone present must have felt quite exhausted afterwards. That said, we will try making some adjustment next year so that we will have enough manpower to handle the large crowd. I like to thank the understaffed cleanup crew for a superb job of cleaning everything in the kitchen, dining area, and the toilets. I wish a few more people actually signed up for the cleanup because it would make the job so much easier and faster.
Finally, I would like to thank especially three people without whose help the event would be much less enjoyable for everyone involved.
First of all, Charles Hatvany, the ex-manager who knows everything about the event inside out, helped me with the planning, inventory checking, did all the solicitation and resulted in generous donations from, alphabetically, Dunkin Donuts (two stores), Rancatore’s Ice Cream, Stop & Shop, Roche Brothers, and Wilson Farm. Then there is Ginny Caples, the assistant manager of this event, whose calm and no-problem attitude made me less anxious as the event got closer. Not only did she help with the planning, she did most of the shopping, including last-minute search for butter pats. The third person is of course your indefatigable Scoutmaster Hank Manz. How he managed to bring more tables and chairs out of seemingly nowhere is still beyond my comprehension but that move was brilliant because he expected a huge crowd and we did get one. When you see them in our next meeting, please thank them for making the event run so much more efficiently and without serious glitches — they were there during all the setups and throughout the event from start to finish.
I have received some suggestions for improving the logistics and we will take all these helpful ideas into account for next year. Thank you. Finally, for those who missed this year’s Pancake Breakfast, you have missed out the fun and nonstop action of working together with other scouts and scout parents, seeing happy and satisfied customers, and working for the one and only one funding raising event of the troop. (You have also missed tasting the pancake burrito!) So, start make your plans to stick around for next year: it’s always on Patriots Day and it’s the Monday of Spring’s school vacation week. As of today, I will begin accept early sign up!
Thank you all for making this event go very smoothly and I look forward to seeing you next year (but please sign up early!)
Yours,
Franco Wong
2008 Pancake Breakfast Manager