What started as a covert breakfast operation in a high school green room has grown into one of Community’s most popular monthly traditions.

Club Pancake serves free pancakes to students every third Friday of the month at 7:45 a.m. in the senior cafe. Founded by seniors Tommy Wade and Ryan Robison, the club typically draws around 50 students—plus a second wave of passersby lured in by the smell in the final minutes before school starts.

“The last 10 minutes, people got off the bus who don’t know about Club Pancake, who smell our pancakes, or hear about it,” Wade said. “Or I yell at them in the hallway, ‘Hey, come get a pancake.’”

On a busy morning, that appetite adds up fast. The club can go through 20 pounds of batter in a single session, producing 300 to 400 pancakes. Operating costs run $50 to $70 per month—funded entirely through tips—and Wade said the club rotates in special flavors each month to keep the menu fresh.

The next meeting, set for Friday, March 20, is St. Patrick’s Day-themed, with green pancakes on the menu.

From green room to senior cafe

The club traces its origins to last year’s school musical, when Wade and Robison quietly set up a pancake-and-waffle griddle in the green room for cast members.

“The more we made, the smell made out into the hallway, and it was harder and harder to hide,” Wade said. “So maybe one girl would get it, and then, okay, the rest of the girls know. So the girls got to get some pancakes, and then the directors, and then everyone knew that there was a pancake party in the green room.”

Wade said pancakes were a natural fit—practical to make in volume and loaded with meaning.

“Pancakes are super easy to make, that we can make a lot of them real fast,” Wade said. “Everyone loves pancakes. Pancakes are a symbol of childhood memories and that classic Saturday breakfast, and that’s what Club Pancake hopes to bring to everyone at school and share that gift.”

The name, he said, was intentional.

“Club Pancake is something more than just a regular club here at Normal Community,” Wade said. “It gives it authority and ethos, and it sounds like it’s like a real thing, even though it’s just two high school students who like to make pancakes and hand them out in the mornings.”

Beyond breakfast

On March 13, Club Pancake expanded its reach beyond the senior cafe, hosting a lunch-hour bake sale to benefit the family of senior Miguel Patiño-Diaz. His father, Jose Patiño, was diagnosed in December with a rare and aggressive form of thyroid cancer near the salivary gland. Miguel’s mother, Nela Diaz, works as a Spanish language translator at Community.

The sale raised $967 to help the family as Jose Patiño undergoes treatment.

What comes next

Looking ahead, Wade said he hopes to secure sponsorships from local restaurants, businesses or the PTO—with IHOP and Original Pancake House among the names he is considering approaching.

As a senior, he is also focused on succession.

“I want to pass the hat down to the underclassmen or juniors here and keep the tradition going,” Wade said. “We’ve got some people of interest that we’re looking at, and I have high hopes for Club Pancake’s future.”

Wade said the goal, at its core, has always been simple.

“I can’t explain the joy that people get when they get pancakes for free,” he said. “They come and they have two or three, fill up on toppings—I hope to put a smile on your face and make your hunger go away.”