Delta Delta Delta sorority sisters flipped and griddled 20 gallons of pancake batter for approximately 500 guests during their annual all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast Saturday night at the sorority's 4044 Spruce St. house. The estimated $3,300 raised at the event will be donated to fund cancer research at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
"This is our biggest philanthropy event of the year," event organizer and College sophomore Leslie Onkenhout said. According to sorority President and College senior Carrie Gordon, Penn's Tri Delt sorority chapter has held a pancake breakfast fundraiser every year since 1986. This year's pancake breakfast proceeds topped last year's by $300.
"It's just fun," Onkenhout said. "The whole house gets covered in batter. It's the sophomore class' moment to shine. ... The last five weeks of my life have gone into this. But you get out of it what you put into it."
She also noted the importance of having non-alcoholic philanthropic events on campus.
Shortly after 11 p.m., Tri Delts stood on the porch cheerfully beckoning passersby and calling up would-be guests on their cell phones.
By midnight, the plastic-draped breakfast table swarmed with guests, as Tri Delt women slipped among diners to refill the heaping aluminum pans of pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage patties.
"I'm here for the food and for my girlfriend," Wharton sophomore Joe Smart said, adding that he would rate the food "a solid 10."
"I wasn't expecting the food to be this good," he added.
"I have a bunch of friends in Tri Delt," College sophomore Peter Feldman said. "Even if the food wasn't good, I wouldn't have the heart to tell them."
Tri Delt sisters cooked pancakes in shifts. One kitchen was not enough to handle the volume, so sisters had to carry freshly stacked plates down Spruce Street from the kitchen at their 4020 Spruce St. satellite house. Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity brothers opened their kitchen to the event as well.
"Please don't light your hair on fire!" Onkenhout said, as she watched a fellow Tri Delt ladling batter into a hot pan on a gas burner.
In keeping with this year's slogan, "Take me to breakfast ... or lose me forever" -- a line from the '80s blockbuster movie Top Gun -- Tri Delts wore custom-made black T-shirts and aprons with Navy-style sorority logos designed by Nursing sophomore Sunne Frankel.
While friends and sorority sisters piled their paper plates high with midnight breakfast -- a few men forgoing the utensils so they could consume more efficiently -- others danced to oldies tunes played live by Andy Kaplan and the Four Leaf Clovers and music from Truce for Tonight.
Tri Delt received batter donations from the International House of Pancakes restaurant of Audubon, N.J., Izzy and Zoe's and Marathon Grill, as well as coffee from Starbucks, pastries from Metropolitan Bakery and toppings from La Creperie. Costco and the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life also contributed to the event.
