IHOP'S National Pancake Day Offers Free Pancakes, Donations for Charities
International House of Pancakes Also Raising Donations to Fund Hospitals
IHOP restaurants across the country are once again offering a free short stack of buttermilk pancakes on National Pancake Day, which falls on Tuesday, Feb 28. Guests will also have the option of donating money in an effort to support Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and other local charities.
Children's Miracle Network Hospitals is a program that raises money for sick children needing special medical care, and the donations usually go to local hospitals. According to its official website, IHOP, which began its National Pancake Day celebrations in 2006, has raised more than $8 million to date.
The promotion lasts from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. IHOP's website lists all the local chapters where people can find IHOP restaurants participating in the event.
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In 2011, IHOP served four million pancakes, and guests donated more than $2.5 million to children's charities, KSFY.com reported. It is also claimed that if all the pancakes served nationwide on National Pancake Day 2011 were stacked on top of each other, they would build a pancake tower nearly 16 miles high, making the event the biggest in IHOP's 53-year history.
A number of testimonies by children who have benefited from the National Pancake Day fundraising event are also available on the website.
One shares the story of Jayla, now three-years-old, who developed an extremely rare disease that affects fewer than 10 babies born in the United States each year, and could have died from the exposure to the smallest germ. Doctors at Duke Children's Hospital, which received donations from the IHOP charity events, however, were able to save her life, and today Jayla is attending preschool.
Americans across the country seemed thrilled on Tuesday morning with the prospect of free pancakes, with hundreds of "Happy National Pancake Day" messages flooding Twitter and reminding people of the one-day breakfast event.
