The Erskine Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) Hall organized its 26th annual pancake breakfast on Father's Day, which was a huge success. The hall was crowded with people coming from across the county.
This annual event is an important way to fund the renovations of the hall. Treasurer Barry Stevens said, "This particular lodge here started in 1910 in the existing building. We are proud of our history. It has been a good thing here for the lodge locally. We have made several improvements to the hall over the years and we still have a long way to go with that but we are going to continue with the breakfast and other events. We have Mother's Day pancake breakfast that has been running for 25 years, and we also do a spaghetti supper in March. We lately started a fall supper in October. So those are the main events that keep us going financially."
With limitless pancakes and eggs at a reasonable price, it was not surprising that many people were there early.
Jared Litvak is a father of four. He said, "Its friendly and reasonably priced and some of the kids look forward to coming here and sitting and eating with us, so it has been good. We came in at 10.30."
The person behind this idea is the cook Scott Kruk. Kruk has been with the organization for a long time. He said, "When I joined the Hall in 1988, the following year I brought up this idea of pancake breakfast. A lot of the members were skeptical. They didn't know who would cook, who's going to get the materials, who's going to do this, who's going to do that. But when it was all said and done, I organized it, got everything all lined up. And we made a profit of 200 and some dollars."
The IOOF organization began in 1819 in Baltimore, Maryland and it has spread throughout United States and then into Canada. It is a worldwide organization, with lodges in Cuba, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and several other European countries.
Not all funds go into the renovations though as Stevens added, "There is a branch of IOOF that help crippled and afflicted children, which we have helped several in the community over a number of years. And we help worldwide projects, such as the Living Legacy program where we provide seedling trees to the junior forest wardens and they in turn plant these trees where forest fires have gone through."