All-you-can-eat meal featured from 6:30-11:00 a.m.
BY JIM BEERS, Contributing Writer
CHESTER —The Methodist Men’s group of the First United Methodist Church in Chester is proud to announce that this coming Saturday March 25 they will host their annual “All-You-Can-Eat” Pancake Breakfast. The event will take place in the FUMC Fellowship Hall.
For more than 61 years the Methodist Men have hosted this event approximately two weeks prior to Easter.
The actual date varies from time-to-time but the men schedule the breakfast just prior to Easter so that they can use the pancake supplies to serve a FREE Easter Breakfast to everyone that attends the Annual Easter Sunrise Church Service.
This year’s Easter Sunrise Service will take place Sunday April 9th at 6:30 a.m.
The public is invited, with breakfast to follow at 7:30 a.m., an Easter Egg Hunt at 8:30 a.m., Sunday School at 9:00 a.m., and the regular Sunday morning Church Service at 10:00 a.m.
There will also be a Palm Sunday Communion and Confirmation Service Sunday April 2nd at 10:00 a.m.; Maundy Thursday Service Thursday April 6th at 7:00 p.m.; and an all-day Good Friday Prayer Vigil Friday April 7th from 6:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m., followed by a Good Friday Service Friday April 7th at 7:00 p.m.
The March 25 Pancake Breakfast will feature “All-You-Can-Eat” Pancakes, quarter-pound sausage links, milk, hot coffee, and cold orange juice.
Carry-outs will be available, however, “dine-in” meals also includes good, clean, Christian Fellowship, a friendly environment, as well as quick, easy, access to all the pancakes, sausage and beverages you can eat!
Proceeds from the event help the United Methodist Men sponsor a variety of projects and missions throughout the year. Such projects have become annual events which help support children, youth, and adults across not only the immediate area, but in both the United States and abroad.
One of the UMM’s favorite projects in the FUMC Methodist Men College Scholarship Program which has helped numerous local college students throughout their post-high school education. This project began prior to 1962 and has provided more than 125 scholarships during that time period.
Children, youth, and families that wish to attend one of the United Methodist Church Summer Camps can also receive scholarship assistance from the Methodist Men. The closest and most frequently attended camp for local attendees is the United Methodist Church Camp at Little Grassy in Makanda, Illinois.
Besides assisting with Church Camp Scholarships, the UMM have been helping to support the Little Grassy Camp for decades via volunteering at the camp cutting grass, cleaning grounds, and making financial donations for various camp projects.
Most recently the First United Methodist Church in Chester adopted a cabin at Little Grassy and have helped to clean the cabin, repair parts of it, put a new roof on it and purchased all new mattresses for the 12 bunks in it.
The UMM also have supported the Chester School District # 139 Music Program; the Society of St. Andrew Food Program; The Midwest Distribution Center that helps send items to impoverished storm-ridden areas; and the Southern Illinois University Wesley Foundation that serves students on campus that are away from their Christian home environments.
The men also donate to Relay for Life; sending Christmas Gifts to children in other countries via the Methodist Women Shoe-Box Program and Operation Christmas Child; the local Hospitality House that helps provide housing to relatives of people visiting their family members at Menard; the Chaddock Children’s Home; CHS Theatre Productions, Our Conference Our Kids Program, the Church Nativity Scene, and help fund numerous FUMC projects.
The public is invited and encouraged to attend the 2023 UMM Pancake Breakfast. The UMM look forward to serving a great breakfast to citizens of Chester and the surrounding area. Tickets are $10 for adults (13 and above), and $5 for children (5 to 12 years). Children 4 and under eat FREE. Tickets are available at the door or from any United Methodist Man.