The 14th annual Flapjack Fest and Silent Auction took place Thursday, March 7 at the Foy Hall Food Court from 6-8 p.m.
Tickets were $5, and all proceeds went toward the Ryan Chandler Memorial Scholarship Endowment Fund. Five dollars provided attendees with all-you-can-eat pancakes, bacon and sausage.
Sodexo and Chartwells, a private food company, donated all of the food for the event.
Ryan Chandler was an Auburn University camp counselor during the first Camp War Eagle orientation program in 1995, but died four years later in the summer of 1999. Chandler's family set up the endowment fund in his honor after his death.
"We are here to raise money for the scholarships and keep Ryan's name and his memory alive," said Mark Armstrong, director of the First Year Experience. "We kind of tagged on and said, 'We need to do something as a program to honor his memory.'"
First Year Experience is involved in many areas of orientation, including Camp War Eagle, SOS, first year University seminar courses and the learning community program.
In the spring of 2000, the First Year Experience created the Flapjack Fest and Silent Auction. During the last 14 years, the event has raised more than $60,000 toward the scholarship fund.
Armstrong anticipated selling approximately 400 tickets for the Flapjack Fest event.He said the goal was to keep growing the endowment fund so more and more students can receive scholarships.
Josh Huggins, head camp counselor and senior in music education, said three rotations of staff were used during the event.
"We've actually had counselors cooking the pancakes, bacon and sausage in the arena all afternoon," Huggins said.
Sixty-two counselors participated in the preparation and management of the event, including 36 camp counselors, 20 parent counselors and six head counselors.
"That's our whole staff that we'll use throughout the whole entire summer," Huggins said.
George Merriam, junior in public relations, was the first student through the line to get pancakes.
"I'm thinking of going back and getting some more flappies," Merriam said. "I've only had 10."
Merriam said he stayed away from the sausage because it would take up too much space in his stomach and attributes his consumption quantity to his friends helping him keep pace.
The silent auction offered an alternative way for participants to show their support of the event.
"The silent auction is going on, and it's all stuff that has either been made or donated, ranging from personal paintings to a football signed by Pat Dye," Huggins said.
In addition, a panorama picture of Jordan-Hare Stadium was one of the items being auctioned off. The counselors hoped the picture would fetch more than $100.
It's important to note that camp counselors are different than student recruiters; however, both groups work together to make students and parents feel at ease.
"For the parents, it's about giving them a lot of comfort," said Meagan Campbell, parent counselor and sophomore in business.
Safety was cited as the biggest concern of all parents, who want to be reassured that their children are safe at Auburn University.
In addition, the camp counselors ensure that parents have a level of familiarity with Auburn's campus.
"They're introduced to some of the offices around campus and things that they need to know," said Brett Findley, head parent counselor and sophomore in organismal biology.
Camp counselors have similar goals for incoming freshmen.
"Our main goal is to make sure students come here their freshman year completely prepared and not lost," said Taylor Akers, camp counselor and sophomore in pre-communication. "They know where they should be going and hopefully where some of their classes will be located."
The camp counselors said they enjoyed what they do, and loved being able to give back by supporting a great cause.
"I'm grateful for anyone who comes out and takes part in it," Armstrong said. "We're happy to feed part of the Auburn family."
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