As I walked around during this time I came across a cluster of seventh grade girls during their recess time. Talking with them, I learned they found wearing pajamas to school not only comfortable but, surprisingly, rather cool. My first guess would be that they would think they were too old for such things.
I guessed wrong again when I thought they would be impatient for their turn at the pancake line. Even though they still had a bit more time to wait for their turn they were fine with everything as they were having a laid back morning or, as they put it, they hadn’t really done anything other than to watch a fun video.
The idea for a school-wide pancake breakfast goes back five years when a preschool grandparent offered to cook pancakes as a way to raise funds for a Ppreschool play area. With the play area now in place the breakfast was revived and reworked into a treat this year as part of Student Appreciation Day.
Now headed by Mrs. Toursarkissian, head room mom for the school, and two teams of very energetic parent volunteers, they cooked up a storm for a good part of the morning. One crew took charge of the cooking detail in the parish kitchen, while the other team manned the toppings station up on the field area by the school’s lunch tables where the students ate their pancakes.
The two teams did an amazing job of getting everyone fed, class by class, starting with the youngest grades. The short wait didn’t seem to be a problem as third grader Angelo Barbera said nothing about that, but went into detail about topping his pancakes with chocolate chips, maple syrup, and whipped cream (I noted that he had bypassed the healthiest choice – fresh cut strawberries). Fellow third grader, Sally Luna, who was standing next to Angelo, gave the pancake breakfast “five stars,” as several other third graders nodded in agreement and held up five fingers for me to see.
Having to wait the longest to be fed didn’t dampen the spirits of the seventh grade boys either. Daniel Martinez, with a little tongue-in-cheek humor, said he felt appreciated, that people cared, as he sat down to eat his breakfast. On a more serious note he also added, with a relaxed tone of voice, “it’s been a fun week.” Fellow classmate Ian Hoffman was too busy tucking into his pancakes to comment, but stopped long enough to add that his breakfast companion had said it “perfectly.”
Across the board eating pancakes at school was given a big thumbs up. However, one first grader, Finnegan Markham-Cobb, was convinced that the funnest part of the day was getting to wear pajamas.
“I get to wear my cool Batman pajamas,” he stressed, turning slightly so I could see the front of his shirt better. His pajamas did, indeed, sport a very colorful Batman.
Wherever their focus for student appreciation day was, the overall thought turned out to be that it doesn’t get much better than pancakes and pajamas.
Anne Alhadef is the Fourth Grade Aide and Campus Minister at Sacred Heart Academy in Redlands.