Pancakes and Sweets: Lions, BHNA Team Up for Valentine's Day

If you associate Valentine's Day with sweet treats, look no further than Bedford Hills this year.

On Feb. 12, the will be collecting homeade 'Sweets for Seniors' at the the pancake breakfast, where volunteers will be cooking up buttermilk and buckwheat pancakes with maple syrup, blueberry, chocoloate chip, apple or cherry topping.

Tickets for the breakfast, to be held from 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. at the , are $7 for adults and $4 for kids; all proceeds benefit the

Coupled with the pancake breakfast—which actually runs through lunch—will be a new tradition created by the Bedford Hills Neighborhood Association, which as one of its 2012 goals.

"We're asking locals to bake something—your favorite cookies or brownies—or bring a candy treat to the community house and we'll deliver them to the seniors on Valentine's Day," said Janet Jacobsen, BHNA president. "Combined with the library benefit, this event doesn't get more community oriented."

The hours for dropping off sweets are 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. BHNA seeks volunteers to help wrap the treats and to help deliver on Valentine's Day—no time committment is too small, say organizers. BHNA is working with the parks department, which has a list of registered seniors, in order to ensure they can reach as many as possible.

The Valentine's Day pancake breakfast happened by chance—in addition to its the Lions Club typically hosts a Halloween-themed pancake breakfast. This year, that was along with many other community events. This may start a bi-annual pancake breakfast tradition, said Bob Collins, officer of the Lions Club, which still plans to have a "spooky" breakfast this October.

"For many years, the benefit of our Halloween breakfast was to work with the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts of Bedford Hills," said Bob Collins, Lions Club officer. "Scouts would help serve and we would give them the proceeds to continue their programs. But when scouting dissipated in Bedford Hills, the Lions wanted to continue the tradition of helping youth, so we partnered with the library."

When asked why he thought pancake breakfasts were so popular, Collins said he thought it was a sense of neighbors helping neighbors that brings the community to the event. The multi-generational aspect of bringing "seasoned citizens" together with young children also makes it an event families can enjoy together, he said.

"We'll also have Kathy Storfer, Bedford Hills library storyteller, who will bring her great following and rapport with the community. Kids love her and the balloon hats and animals she makes," said Collins.

To sign-up to help with 'Sweets for Seniors," email BHNA10507@aol.com. For more information on the breakfast, see the flyer posted with this story.