Negaunee Lions reach big milestone, host 50th Annual Pancake Breakfast

The Negaunee Area Lions Club celebrated a big milestone Sunday.

It's the organization's 50th annual pancake breakfast. This year they made the event a little bigger with an expanded menu for the monumental occasion.

"It's a milestone and one we're proud of. It just goes to show that with the service organizations that are out there that we've been able to last 50 years as an organization and serving up breakfast so yea this thing has been around for a long time. It's nice to say we've been around," says Gary Perala, President of the Negaunee Lions Club.

The Lions' motto is "We Serve," so all of the money raised from the breakfast's ticket sales go back locally to youth programs, scholarships, grants, and other needs in the community.

"I think we have a really good reputation in our community and for being a part. When I was a young kid I played for the Negaunee Lions Little League and as an athlete for the Negaunee Miners they were always part of that and supporting through either their volunteerism, either through money, so they've always been a part.. Later in life when I wanted to get involved in an organization I looked to the Lions because I remember them as a kid, so that's just the kind of thing that we are. It's really nice to be part of something that's been around for 50 years," explains Perala.

The annual Pancake breakfast is one of the Lions' two big fundraisers of the year bringing in nearly $10,000.