By Clyde Noel
Town Crier Correspondent
There’s a good reason to get out of bed early this Saturday: You can take advantage of the pancake breakfast at the 43rd annual Rancho Roundup. The event will be held, as it is every year, in the Rancho Shopping Center, 8 a.m. to noon.
The breakfast is sponsored by the Rancho Merchants Association as a fund-raiser for local schools’ PTAs.
For a $3 donation you can have pancakes, link sausages, orange juice, bagels and coffee. Rancho merchants will be on hand to cook sausages and flip flapjacks, and the parents of children attending local elementary schools will set up and serve breakfast.
Jeremy Liewer, public relations director for the merchants association, remembers when he came for pancakes as a kid with his family.
“It’s a unique Los Altos tradition,” he said.
During the past week, students have been selling tickets. The school keeps $2 of the proceeds of each ticket. After incidental expenses are paid, the remaining portion of the $1 is divided equally among the schools.
In the past, the schools have received between $12,000 and $15,000. The money is used to purchase playground equipment, computers and other resources for Almond, Oak, Springer, Loyola and Montclaire schools.
Liewer said the association absorbs food costs and other expenses. Andronico’s supplies all the paper products, 9,000 sausages and 120 gallons of orange juice. Clarke’s restaurant provides the pancake mix to make more than 10,000 pancakes.
Breakfast will be served 8 a.m. to noon. At 8:30 a.m. the Mountain View High School Jazz Ensemble will perform. Face painting will be available to keep the children busy.
Volunteers know the line forms early, and when the first person starts coming through, six volunteers start to pour pancake batter and flip the pancakes. Volunteers work in half-hour shifts.
Liewer said there will be a drawing for a $500 gift certificate to any Rancho store of choice or combination of stores.
Organizers said they expect more than 2,000 children and parents will attend the breakfast.
