Hundreds of people ate pancakes for a cause at Texas THON’s semi-annual Pancake Night, held from 7 p.m. Thursday to 3 a.m. Friday at the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity house. 

Texas THON is a nonprofit student organization that raises money for Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas. Pancake Night has been a THON tradition for at least four years, said Alexxa Newman, the organization’s director of fundraising. Members of THON made pancakes starting at 6 p.m. with the intention of feeding 800 or more people at least three pancakes each. Newman said the event is important to her because it is one of the largest events THON hosts. 

Attendees paid $5 to enter the all-you-can-eat pancake buffet, with 100% of the proceeds going toward the THON donor drive. Last semester, Pancake Night raised about $4,000, Newman said.

“Pancake Night is one of my favorite events of the year,” said Newman, an applied learning and development junior. “All internal THON team (members) come together to put it on. In the kitchen, everyone’s working together. It makes the hours go by really quickly. The goal of tonight is to have last year’s attendance or more.”

This is the second Pancake Night of this academic year, and 800 people showed up at the last Pancake Night in November, Newman said. Texas THON organizes multiple events throughout the year, including a tailgate and a Valentine’s Day party. Newman said they spend the most time working toward a dance marathon, which will be held March 8.

“Everything we do goes directly to families in need, and Texas THON has been a great family for me,” Newman said.

Texas THON member Kylan Perry said managing 800 people in one house can be difficult. 

“It gets really busy at around 9 o’clock, so we try to keep a flow of people going in and out,” said Perry, a communication sciences and disorders freshman. “I love the people, and I love the cause. (At) this event in particular, I just like that we can all come together and eat food that we all love and then support the kids that we love and need support.”

Computer science sophomore Grant Skaggs said he attended the event because a friend invited him.   

“I mean, I would go just for the pancakes, to be honest, but the fact that there is charity is very nice,” Skaggs said.