Volunteers get Calgary ready for pancake pandemonium
Posted Jun 27, 2014 7:20 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s become an annual tradition at the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth: the pancake breakfast.
The Calgary Stampede Caravan has been ordering food since January as they prepare for thousands of people looking to get their flapjack fill.
Spokesperson Ruth Ann Rayner tells 660News, they start in January confirming shopping malls they booked the year before.
“Then of course there is making sure the stoves, the tables and tents are all in good working order,” she said. “Things begin to ramp up the closer we get to Stampede.”
Rayner says by April they’re confirming entertainment and then in May, it’s all about the finishing touches.
A team of roughly 170 volunteers work at maintaining the equipment and trucks by the time they’re ready to roll out.
It’s believed there will be 40 tents and 78 tables at each event as they serve over 100,000 people in total.
“That’s 200,000 sausage paddies, 200,000 pancakes and that would be enough batter to fill an Olympic sized pool,” she laughs. “And then of course there’s the syrup, the napkins, plates and so forth.”
Starting next weekend they will host two breakfasts a day for seven days, one in the north end of the city, one in the south each day; and they’ll go ahead rain or shine.
“Caravan has never, ever shut down,” says Rayner. “Not even the first Monday in 1989 when it was raining so hard and we had to shut down the stove, we’ve had snow and we never shut down.”
For more information on the schedule click here.
