Pancake Jamboree heads into 50th year

Longtime Lynchburg Exchange Club member Lawrence Bryant explains the club’s annual Pancake Jamboree this way: “It’s like the circus. We come in, set up, do our show, and then tear it all down again.”

And as of Friday, they will have been doing it for half a century.

“The City Armory is the place to be on the first Friday on November,” said Ed Bolen, another pancake breakfast veteran. “It’s a Lynchburg tradition.”

“We feed doctors, lawyers, judges and winos,” added Gene Gallagher. “You’re likely to see just about anybody there.”

Last year, the Exchange Club fed roughly 3,800 people between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. That, said Bolen, was about average.

“I think we went over 4,000 back in 2004,” he said.

The original idea evolved from an offer by the Aunt Jemima pancake mix company to lend grills to nonprofits for their pancake fundraisers. The Exchange Club first accepted that offer in 1959, holding its initial Jamboree in a warehouse at 1100 Main St. After a few years, it moved to the J.P. Bell Printing Company at 900 Main, then to J.C. Penney’s, and finally to the Armory.

“The Armory is a great place to hold this,” said Bryant, “except for the parking.”

Fortunately, the crowd is spread out over 14 hours, minimizing gridlock at 12th and Church streets.

Meanwhile, Aunt Jemima long ago changed its policy of free grill rental. So the Exchange Club bought the grills.

“They sold them to us at a greatly reduced price,” Bryant recalled.

He and about 15 other club members, along with some volunteers from Liberty University, were setting up in the Armory “Big Top” on Wednesday afternoon.

“We have to bring in our own pipes for the propane heaters we use,” Bryant said, “and there’s all the tables and chairs to set up. A company out of Greensboro will bring a 28-foot truck with the pancake batter and the sausage patties, pull it up to the far door (of the Armory), and we’ll just offload everything from there.”

This is the Exchange Club’s only fundraiser, an intense three-day affair that involves all of the members who are still ambulatory. Proceeds go to a wide variety of causes, including scholarships, drug abuse prevention, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, the Children’s Miracle Network, the National D-Day Memorial, and other patriotic organizations.

“We’re also raffling off a 50-inch TV this year,” said Bolen, “and a gift basket.”

The club expects to sell 15,000 pancakes and 1,500 pounds of sausage, Gallagher said.

“Once you buy a ticket ($7 in advance, $8 at the door, children under 4 free),” he added, “it’s all you can eat. One year, I watched a guy go back eight times for refills.”

Which is fine with Lawrence Bryant.

“We want all the food we have to be eaten,” he said. “That way, we won’t have to re-pack it.”