Eat a pancake – save the parade
New breakfast fundraiser in Bancroft before and during Coronado bash Sept. 24
A new event, the “Save the Parade” pancake breakfast, is planned in Bancroft Park the morning of the 41st annual Coronado High School Homecoming Parade in Old Colorado City Saturday, Sept. 24.
The planned time frame is 8 a.m. - an hour before the marchers and floats start down Colorado Avenue - until about 10 a.m., when the parade- climaxing pep rally in Bancroft will conclude. For a $5 donation, a breakfaster will get a plate of pancakes and “something to drink [coffee, juice or milk],” said Brian Kohls, the Homecoming chair for the Coronado PTA. Servers will be school staffers, and all the proceeds will benefit the parade. “That's the whole purpose,” he said. “There are rising costs for putting on the parade every year, and this is a way to possibly defray them.” Mainly because of city liability-related demands, parade costs have roughly doubled in less than five years. The current expense to put on the parade is about $3,500. Moreover, Student Council faculty advisor Dianna Fitzsimmons said she's been told by a police spokesperson that the cost for off-duty police may go up significantly next year. For their part, Coronado's Student Cabinet, headed this school year by Student President Drew MacMillan and in 2010-11 by Maria Escobar, raised about $4,500 over a 12-month span through various fundraising efforts (including school dodgeball competitions and donation boxes in Old Colorado City businesses) in conjunction with the school administration. That covers this year's parade, with about $1,000 left over, based on school numbers. A similar scenario had unfolded the year before, when then-president Tyler Romero and his cabinet put on the 2009 parade and then fundraised throughout 2009-10 for the 2010 parade that Escobar was responsible for. “The students have done a good job, but they have a lot on their plate [with other school activities and responsibilities],” said Coronado Principal David Engstrom, who suggested the pancake plan to the PTA after seeing a similar fundraiser work well in another community. He said it may take a year or two for it to catch on, but on the other hand, noting that several hundred spirited people typically attend the parade, he enthused, “Why can't we tap into how everyone feels down at Bancroft Park? If we get 700 people buying pancakes at $5 a person, we'll have paid for next year's parade.” Westside Pioneer article |