DL VFW Auxiliary and Knights of Columbus fundraise with pancakes and sausage on May 7

Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – Detroit Lakes answered an age-old question on Sunday morning, can you hold two different pancake and sausage breakfast fundraisers on the same day?

And it seems the answer is a resounding, yes.

Members of Detroit Lakes’ VFW Post 1676 auxiliary and Knights of Columbus Chapter 3166 held their own breakfast fundraisers on May 7 at the VFW post and Holy Rosary Church, respectively.

Connie Coalwell, secretary for the Detroit Lakes VFW auxiliary, explained where their raised funds were heading.

Vivian Wittnebel, right, of Lake Park, makes her way through the breakfast serving line at the Detroit Lakes VFW Auxiliary pancake breakfast fundraiser on May 7, 2023. (MIchael Achterling / KDLM News)

“The donations are going to go to the Fargo VA, the St. Cloud VA, the Fergus Falls Veterans Home and, in the future, we will be doing events and collecting money to send to the new veterans homes that are going up around the state,” said Coalwell. 

She also said their group hosts many different events throughout the year, like their breakfast fundraiser in March that raised about $1,500 for the Honors Flight program, which transports American veterans to Washington D.C. so they may honor and celebrate their service with other veterans.

“That’s why we do the breakfasts,” she said. “They are to generate money for our general fund so we can also donate to community projects, if there is anything in the community they want, or, if there are any veteran out there that is struggling, or having a hard time meeting their rent, their utilities, their debts, if they need a little help, all they have to do is let us know, so we can verify and donate to them to help them pay their rent.”

At Holy Rosary Catholic Church, Jim Wolf, grand knight of the Detroit Lakes Knights of Columbus chapter, said they had a pretty big rush of people before church services started on Sunday morning.

“We had probably one of our best turn-outs at our 9 a.m. mass so far,” said Wolf. “We had 119 come down for breakfast.”

The free will donations taken-in during their fundraising event will be donated to a local Seminarian organization to help pay part of the cost for local parishioner Jon Stone to continue attending the seminary in his pursuit of becoming a priest.

Stone recently completed his second year at the institution.

“A lot of times, when we do our freewill stuff, especially if it’s somebody like Jon Stone, we’re doing free will for the seminarians, and people just come out,” he said. “Whether they eat or not, they come out and donate money.”

In total, Wolf said, the Knights ordered 25 pounds of pancake mix and 25 pounds of breakfast sausage for the event. He added they only had about a pound of the breakfast sausage left by 11 a.m. because it was so popular during the morning rush.

Both groups said they are planning other volunteer event opportunities over Memorial Day weekend and throughout the summer.