Enough to feed a team

This Saturday, Huntington Beach’s search and rescue team members, the Lions Club of Huntington Beach and Team Rescue 1000 will host a pancake breakfast at Lake Park to raise money for their organizations and also to send some to a Mexican orphanage called El Oasis in Valle De La Trinidad.

The breakfast is part of several efforts by the search and rescue teams and the Lions Club to help the less fortunate.

Eric Ramsey, coordinator of Huntington Beach’s explorer scouts is a member of the Huntington Beach Police Department air support unit and was an explorer scout in search and rescue when he was 16.

His dream was to be a helicopter pilot, and now he is.

The explorer scouts donate approximately 5,000 hours each year to the city for things like traffic control on the 4th of July, minor types of crowd control, light first aid, color guard presentations at city council meetings and police officer associations — anywhere the city needs them.

But this year, the kids have an additional focus. They’ve inspired the police and fire departments to band together this November in a 1,000-mile race through the Mexican desert to raise money for charity.

For more information, see https://www.score-international. com/baja1000/.

Ramsey said while some of the money from the breakfast will benefit the search and rescue programs, all the proceeds from the race will go straight to the orphans.

The race starts in Ensenada and ends in Cabo San Lucas.

Ramsey said, “The race is a metaphor for life.”

It’s about “following through, reaching for your dreams,” he said. Initially, the kids wanted to compete in the race but can’t because of liability reasons. Now, they’ve assembled an adult team who has come together to race, to show them what can be done.

Ramsey said he told the scouts he didn’t care who they donated the money to as long as it went to kids less fortunate.

As for the race, Ramsey said they “just want to finish.” They’re hoping donors will sponsor their race, at selected dollars per mile, and they’re selling T-shirts on their website.

“You’ve got to be a fighter, somebody who is willing to take risks … go forward and get what you want out of life,” Ramsey said. And that’s what he wants to show the kids, by selling pancakes and racing.

Ramsey is part of the team of five who’ll be racing Nov. 13.

As for the breakfast, Daniel Ixcot, the director of El Oasis orphanage, is slated to share in the pancakes with locals from Huntington Beach.

The orphanage was brought to the attention of the Lions Club by Patrick Christy, a search and rescue team member. Christy’s father, Steve, is the Lions Club president.

The all-you-can-eat grub fest runs from 7:30 to 11 a.m. at a cost of $5.

Raffle tickets for $1 will be sold. Some of the prizes won will include: $100 gift certificates to South Coast Plaza, Angel tickets, sweatshirts, restaurant gift certificates, chocolate and a first aid kit.

The Lions Club hosts between six and 10 pancake breakfasts a year, club president Christy said.

The Lions cook up pancakes for the city of Huntington Beach on Halloween and for the junior lifeguards the last weekend of every July. They light up the grill for the Ocean View baseball every year, usually in the spring as well as for the day before Mother’s Day.

Another new breakfast they’re already added to the list this year is the American Cancer Society Relay for Life this Sunday.