Friday, March 21, 2025
Early Sunday morning, members of the West Hempstead Lions club gathered to prepare for their annual pancake breakfast. Despite the snowfall, members showed up early to decorate the West Hempstead Secondary School cafeteria with raffles, photo-ops and prepare a breakfast feast.
Members spend months pulling this event together, according to president of the West Hempstead Lions club, Mia Murphy. She notes that their annual Super Bowl Sunday pancake breakfast is the clubs biggest fundraiser of the year. Money raised during the event support the clubs community efforts throughout the year.
For a fee, community members can enjoy an unlimited breakfast, which includes all you can eat pancakes, scrambled eggs, waffles, sausages, bagels, coffee, tea, juice and more. There were many raffles offered, with various prize baskets that included a pizza oven, a slow cooker, two violins and more.
The Lions began hosting an all you can eat pancake breakfast in 1979. “When I became the district governor of Nassau County,” said Al Brandel, “we needed some funds to help get things going, so that was the first pancake breakfast we had.”
The original event was held at the American Legion Hall on Woodlawn Avenue. Over the years the breakfast became a tradition held the morning of Super Bowl Sunday and hosted at the secondary school.
Not only do the Lions raise money for their club, they also collected donations of toiletry items to donate to the INN. The INN is a Long Island based non-profit that provides food and shelter to those experiencing homelessness, hunger and poverty,
They also participated in a Super Hero Raffle for the benefit of the Brandel-Murphy Youth Foundation.
“When I finished up being the world president of Lions International, the Lions from your state usually gave you a gift,” said Brandel. After four years of dedicated service and overseeing Lions clubs around the world, he was offered a car. “I said ‘I don’t need a car.’ So they had money, and I said lets use this for children, to help children.”
Brandel and his wife, Maureen Murphy, started the foundation in 2009. The foundation provides matching grants for any Lions clubs in New York and Bermuda to help fund any project they cannot afford to do on their own, to help children in need. Winners of the raffle received a cash prize, while all ticket sales allow the foundation to further their mission.
The breakfast also featured a display of posters entered in the Lions Club International peace poster contest. Students ages 11-13 are required to draw a picture that aligns with a theme determined by the organization. This year, West Hempstead’s poster contest winner, Allison Ortiz, won third place at the state contest.
