Hundreds of area residents came out to the pancake breakfast, including Mary and Richard Mack, Sherrie and Tom Tannert, Cynthia Allen and Priscilla Hart.
A mechanized sign at Lake Sumter Landing Market Square directed area residents to a lakeside drop-off point where members of the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office were collecting unused and expired prescription drugs as part of Operation Medicine Chest.
All morning long, a steady flow of cars, pickups and golf carts passed by and handed their discard items to Deputy Mike Callahan, Sgt. Robert Siemer and Lt. Nehemiah Wolfe. Now and then, pedestrians in jackets and scarves did the same.
“We want to be sure these drugs don’t fall into the wrong hands,” Lt. Wolfe explained, “and we don’t want them getting into our landfills or water supply either. Some of these medicines still have active ingredients, and we want to keep the environment as free from harmful pollutants as we can.”
A few steps further down the road, at R.J. Gator’s restaurant, a special pancake breakfast was in full swing. Proceeds from the event benefitted the SCSO Kids, Cops and Christmas program.
Event organizers, Sam and Nadine Landis, thanked their neighbors, Jack and Donna Kidney (center) for having breakfast.
Village of Poinciana residents, Nadine and Sam Landis, organized the event, with the cooperation of many of their neighbors and friends, to raise money for local children who are living in poverty.
“Dan Graham, who owns this restaurant, opened it early for us, so we could run this pancake breakfast,” Sam Landis said, “and he donated the services of his cook, Kathy Hynes. That’s why everyone is enjoying professional-style pancakes this morning — nice and thin and all uniform — because that’s a professional cook back there.”
“When we told our friends and neighbors that we wanted to do this,” Nadine added, “so many of them said they would be willing to help us make this happen. The servers and the people collecting the tickets and donations are all volunteers — and we can’t thank them enough.”
Kathy Hynes, dished up the pancakes at R.J. Gator’s restaurant.
“I grew up in a Philadelphia tenement,” Sam Landis said. “We were pretty poor. But life has been more than fair to us, and I always said after I retired, I wanted to give back what I could — especially to help kids growing up in poverty. We spoke to Lt. Wolfe about this, and he helped us get this going. We donated the food and paper plates — so every penny that is collected can be used to buy Christmas toys, warm clothing and essentials for local children. All the money will stay right here in Lady Lake.”
“This is a very chilly morning,” Nadine Landis said as she watched the wind-whipped chop on Lake Sumter from the restaurant windows, “but we know Villagers are very giving people, and we’re glad so many of them came to this benefit breakfast.” Between the hours of 7 and 10 a.m., several hundred people came for pancakes and sausage, orange juice and coffee. “We had so many people, we actually ran out of sausages,” volunteer servers, Tom and Bennie Harter said. “We had to switch to bacon — but that’s a good thing. We’re glad everybody showed up.”
Sumter County Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Callahan, Sgt. Robert Siemer and Lt. Nehemiah Wolff collected unused and expired prescription drugs.
