By Faith Jarrell and Heather Fabritze
Elm Staff Writer and Student Life Editor
Chestertown community members and students, staff, and faculty of Washington College crowded into the Emmanuel Episcopal Church on the morning of Saturday, April 22 to sit, chat, and chow down on breakfast for a good cause.
From 8 a.m. to noon., the brothers of Kappa Sigma hosted their semi-annual Pancake Breakfast, open to anyone in the community. For a donation fee of $5, anyone could get a wide array of food and refreshments, including regular, blueberry, and chocolate chip pancakes, regular and cheesy eggs, sausage, bacon, hashbrowns, juices, and coffee — all of which were cooked and served by the brothers of Kappa Sigma.
All proceeds were donated to the Kappa Sigma Military Heroes Campaign, a charity for military veterans that the fraternity has been working with for over 17 years. According to the Kappa Sigma website, members of the fraternity “aggressively pursue opportunities” to financially support America’s veterans and “help them overcome the battles they fight every day.”
As well as raising money for a good cause, Pancake Breakfast allows the greater Chestertown community to come together, especially those who have not experienced the event before.
Member of Kappa Sigma freshman Keegan Enzor, who could not make it to the fall Pancake Breakfast during his first semester, was excited to be able to partake in the spring.
“It’s both a great day for the community and College, but it’s also for us,” Enzor said. “It’s kind of this special day where we’re all working together, running around to get stuff done. It’s really fun to experience.”
Pancake Breakfast is the fraternity’s largest philanthropy event. According to Kappa Sigma Co-Service Chair senior Sam Mobley, this year’s event was also one of their biggest in terms of fundraising, with brothers raising over $3,000 in tickets and donations.
The church was filled with attendees from the Chestertown Farmer’s Market, WC athletic teams, professors and their families, and students. Seeing the greater community come together in such an inspiring manner was one of the most gratifying parts of the event for Mobley.
“It was really surprising to see how many campus members showed up because, you know, it’s a Saturday morning,” Mobley said. “You’re like, ‘Oh, who’s really going to show up at this time after Friday night?’ It was really cool seeing all the campus groups show up and I want to thank everyone on campus [for that].”
One of the most unique parts of Pancake Breakfast is how Kappa Sigma brothers involve the community through their donation goals. In the lead up to the event, the fraternity announced the funds they needed to raise this semester to reach each goal.
The highest objectives include three goals requiring them to raise $3,000 – if they successfully reached that milestone, the entire chapter would shave, brothers would pie President of the College Dr. Michael Sosulski, and the Kappa Sigma presidents would take a pancake batter shower.
Other goals included fraternity sweethearts pieing the entire chapter, WC Lifelong Learning Coordinator Shane Brill wearing a shirt of bees, and the chapter jumping into the Chester River.
All of their donation milestones can be found on their Instagram account @kappasigwac. In addition, the fraternity sold t-shirts for $25 prior to and during the breakfast to market the event.
At the end of the day, though, Mobley emphasized the joy that comes from spending time with his brothers at the fundraiser.
“I would say the most exciting things from Pancake Breakfast were some of the shenanigans going on back in the kitchen, shenanigans getting ready and serving,” Mobley said. “But no, we all had a really good time just [planning Pancake Breakfast] together.”
Over the next few weeks, the brothers of Kappa Sigma will be releasing videos and photos of them completing their donation goals that they reached on their Instagram account.
Photo courtesy of Sam Mobley
Photo Caption: Tables at Pancake Breakfast were full of families, friend groups, and teams.