With a busy day of spring sports ahead of them on Saturday, many local kids and parents will be looking to kick off their days with a hearty breakfast.

Volunteers with the Dowagiac Optimist Club will be up for the task that morning, as the club holds its 32nd annual pancake breakfast from 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., inside the Dowagiac Union High School Cafeteria. Tickets cost $5 for adults and $4 for seniors or children, and will be sold at the door.

Members of the organization will be manning the stovetops throughout the morning, preparing batches of fluffy pancakes and tasty sausage for visitors. The annual event has been quite popular over the years, drawing in hundreds of eaters every year, said Optimist Club member Jeremy Truitt.

“At this point it’s a tradition for many families,” Truitt said.

The members use the event as their primary fundraiser for the year, Truitt said. Like other Optimist organizations around the globe, the local club is devoted to improving the lives of area children, sponsoring annual events and projects such as their annual Halloween parade and costume contest.

“Everything we do is to help kids in and around Cass County,” Truitt said.

Last year, the event generated $2,300 worth of proceeds, with between 250-300 people in attendance, said Optimist Club President Steven Grinnewald.

The funds from Saturday’s event will go primarily toward the club’s annual scholarship, a $500 award they give to high school seniors during the school’s honors night ceremony.

Formerly known simply as the Optimist Club Scholarship, it has since been renamed the Dave Strlekar Memorial Scholarship, in honor of the club’s longtime president who died last April, shortly after last year’s pancake breakfast.

Despite the loss of their leader, more than a dozen members of the Optimist Club will continue to run the fundraiser just as it has in previous years, Truitt said.

“We’re just trying to carry on the same tradition we’ve done for a number of years,” Truitt said.

With several athletic activities taking place around the high school on Saturday, the club expects to see a great turnout for this year’s breakfast, Truitt said.

“If you want breakfast on Saturday, you’ll know where to go,” he said.