Hotcake race sees hot competition
Staff writer
Despite Saturday morning’s cold, competition in a Peabody pancake-flipping race was hot as could be.
A line of hungry diners was eager for breakfast at Peabody Community Foundation’s annual pancake feed Saturday.
After being strengthened by sausage and pancakes, kids 13 and younger took to a football practice field to line up with skillets.
Foundation director Becky Nickel went down the line and placed a pancake in each skillet.
When the time to run was announced, kids had to flip their pancakes before they raced toward a cone on the field. At the cone, they had to flip the pancake a second time before they could run back to the starting line.
At the finish, they had to flip their pancakes again.
Some had more success than others. Several had to stop and pick their pancakes up off the ground before they finished the course.
Others were able to give their pancakes extra flips as they ran along.
Parents and grandparents, lined up beside the starting line, cheered contestants on taking photos on their cell phones.
Pancake race winners by age category were Walker Hind in 3- to-4-year-olds, Tanynn Yoder in 5-to-6-year-olds, Mackenzie Phelps in 7-to-8-year-olds, and Ryker Yoder in 9-to-11-year olds.
Second-place winners from youngest to oldest were Ariah Chase, Izzy Reynolds, Ana Chase, and Alaya Chase.
After the race and awarding of prizes for the fastest flippers, Nickel announced 2023 round of community foundation grants.
The largest grant, $2,600, was given to Youth Core Ministries to support its program to help families solve poverty and to help launch a new initiative to help heal trauma and break the cycle of trauma and abuse.
Peabody Senior Center got $2,300 to repair its kitchen floor.
Peabody Association of Churches got $1,000 for its Angel Tree program, which supports families during the holidays.
Marion County Families and Communities Together got $1,000 for emergency financial assistance to households in the Peabody-Burns school district.
The city got $850 for lifeguard training and $500 for free swimming lessons for children.
Peabody Fall Festival got $500, Peabody Township Library got $500 for a book repair system, and Court Appointed Special Advocates got $250 to support volunteer advocates for children in the 8th Judicial District.