Porter County Gets a Lift From Pancake Breakfast

Each fall and spring, hundreds of Special Olympics Indiana athletes gather at Butler University for a weekend of learning and camaraderie.

At Athlete Leadership University, these individuals learn skills that will help them become leaders within their county programs and in their communities.

For Porter County athletes, traveling from the Chicago suburbs means an extra night in hotels so they are ready to go first thing Saturday morning. This cost was enough to keep some individuals from attending.

Eric Thorsted wanted to help.

As part of the ALU Advanced Event Planning class, his practicum includes creating a fundraiser. After talking with county and area leaders, Thorsted planned and organized a pancake breakfast that raised $7,000 and covered the hotel cost for Porter County’s spring ALU delegation.

“We live so far away that I wanted to do something for my county to let everyone who wanted to come to ALU and have an easier time affording it,” Thorsted said.

Working with his mentor, Bill Sexton, Thorsted approached George’s Gyros in Chesterton about the idea. George’s not only hosted the breakfast but donated all the food and drinks. The only overhead was paying four cooks for their time.

After months of planning, Thorsted opened the doors on the day of the event. He didn’t know who would come.

It turns out that everyone came.

“For being the first year, I thought we would raise absolutely nothing,” Thorsted said. “We really didn’t know how much money we could raise. We didn’t know if we would sell tickets. Everybody in the county seemed to know about it.”

Through the three hours, servers delivered 200 plates of pancakes to customers. All with Thorsted overseeing the process.

“It was great,” he said. “We hope to make it an annual event.”

The fall session of ALU is Oct. 11-12. Click here to learn more.