Pancaked! Youth Wrestlers Raise $1,000 with Breakfast

Dominick Bautz graduated from Hopatcong High School 1988. But every time he sees the Junior Chiefs' wrestling mat, he swears he used it back in the day.

Anthony Luciani can hardly stand to look at it. "The mat is in terrible condition," he said.

So, the Junior Chiefs, Hopatcong's youth wrestling program, held a pancake breakfast fundraiser at the St. Jude's Parish's recreation center Sunday morning, raising over $1,000 as about 100 people dined.

President Michael Cahn said the money would go toward not just a new mat, but uniforms, too. Board members estimated a new mat would cost about $10,000, while new uniforms would be around $4,000.

The program's current mat, according to Bautz, the program's vice president, is about a decade old. It's been refurbished once—about six years ago—and is shared with Hopatcong High School, which uses it during gym classes.

"It's just in really bad shape," Bautz said.

The pancake breakfast began at 9 a.m. and lasted into the early afternoon, serving mostly wrestling parents and parishioners leaving St. Jude's mass. Secretary Linda Frazier estimated the program served more than 1,500 pancakes and 700 sausage patties, along with beverages.

Glenn Haines, a Junior Chiefs wrestler, sold tickets at the door. He said things were slow at first.

"But we actually sold more later on in the day," he said. "Like in the past couple of minutes or the last hour we sold a lot more tickets."

His mother, Pam, was worried families wouldn't attend because of other Sunday obligations.

"I didn't think Sunday would be a good day," she said. "But Sunday was perfect."

Dylon Frazier, a 12-year-old, 145-pound varsity wrestler helped serve pancakes.

"It was fun just going around and talking to people," he said. "And rolling the garbage can around. And I was the pancake boy."

Luciani, who wrestled in the program as a kid, thanked Rev. George Gothie for allowing the Junior Chiefs to use its facility for free.

"It's very important to the club because we actually need the money for the kids and the uniforms and the new mat we hope to get in the future. It's a great thing Father George let us use this facility," said Luciani, who also credited Fraizer, Collette Ioffredo, Amy Mastroeni and Darryal Barrett for preparing the venue for the event Saturday night and Roy Malmendier for cooking the food.

It was the Junior Chiefs' third fundraiser of the summer. The non-profit also held a car wash in the Department of Public Works parking lot, which brought in about $750, and sold poinsettias, making more than $1,000.

Editor's note: Donations can be made to the Junior Chiefs via PayPal at hopatcongjrchiefs.org.