On Sunday, Jan. 31, Jay Lussier and friends will tie their aprons and roll up their sleeves for the 10th annual Clinton Lions Club Pancake Breakfast

The breakfast, which runs from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. at Andrews Memorial Town Hall, is free with the donation of a nonperishable food item. Monetary contributions are also welcome, and 100 percent of the funds raised and the food collected goes to Families Helping Families (FHF).

“Ten years ago, when FHF was just getting started, the Clinton Lions Club approached us out of the clear blue about wanting to get involved and help,” recalled FHF President Miner Vincent. “They had heard about this new startup in Clinton and wanted to support us in our efforts to assist families in need. So, for the past nine years they have been getting up in the dark, cold, early hours to prepare a massive breakfast on the last Sunday in January.”

Lussier, a member of the Clinton Lions Club for 19 years and its current president, applauds the work of FHF. “They’re a local organization, and they do so much for the residents of Clinton,” he said. “We’re happy to support them.”

At a typical pancake breakfast, he said, volunteers will flip 540 pancakes, serve 300 to 400 sausages, pour five gallons of orange juice, and brew 270 cups of coffee. They also go through two gallons of syrup and 40 pounds of homemade, locally cured bacon prepared by three Lions Club members and served on glass plates.

“The Lions do everything from the setting up to the cooking to making sure the Green Room at the Town Hall is spotless and ready for business on Monday,” said Vincent. “Their pancakes are the best, and you can go up for seconds. And words don’t do justice to the homemade bacon that goes along with those pancakes.”

Lussier anticipates collecting about 600 nonperishable food items and $1,700 in cash donations at this year’s event.

Over the past nine years, the pancake breakfast has brought in more than $11,000 and 3,500 pounds of food to FHF.

“It’s a wonderful time to come out and see neighbors and friends,” said Vincent, “with the added benefit of raising funds and food to help Clinton families.”

Each year, Lussier caps off the event by making a massive pancake, two feet in diameter, which he flips with a cookie sheet.

“The first year I did this,” he says, “a little girl came over and had her picture taken with the pancake. She was about five years old at the time. She’s come back every year since.”

Every year, the girl—now in her mid-teens—poses with the giant pancake.

The Clinton Lions Club is involved in a number of charitable drives and community events, including funding for eye care, scholarships for college-bound youth, alcohol-free graduation parties, D.A.R.E. programs, Christmas in Clinton, and the town’s Memorial Day Parade. New this year at the pancake breakfast, the Lions Club will offer children from 13 months of age to their early teens a free vision screening that can help with early detection of eye problems. The screening is done with a sophisticated camera that determines the health of a person’s eye in seconds. The camera snaps a photo, and data detailing the health of a subject’s eyes is immediately displayed and can be printed.