Canada Day started out yesterday (July 1) with a lot of hungry people lining up at the Tower Lane Mall for the Airdrie Kinsmen Club's Annual Canada Day Breakfast.

The club's secretary Don Scotten took time out of his pancake flipping duties to look back at his 27 years with the Kinsmen saying the breakfast event pre-dates him.  

"I've been a member of the club for 27 years and the breakfast has been an annual event since I started and beyond.  Originally Shell was the sponsor for it and it was at the Plainsman Arena.  I don't know how many years it went beyond but it's beyond 30 for sure.  It's a Canada Day tradition."

Scotten say all proceeds raised by the breakfast go right back into the community.  "Well essentially the money goes back into the community from requests that come from the community.  We field correspondence at every meeting for people in need, could be anything from pictures on the wall to a bus for Bethany to all of the community groups in town that need help like the Food Band and Community Links.   We work a casino every three years and the money is basically pooled to give back to this community, it stays in Airdrie and area.

Scotten's guess-timate of the turnout for yesterday's breakfast was in the area of 600 people.  He says they get feedback from people who tell them they really enjoy going to the breakfast.  

"Everybody seems to enjoy it, we get very few complaints and it's great because it's right on the parade route as well.  You see a lot of the same people come back every year, Airdrie's growing like gang busters so it does grow with the community as well.  You get a long weekend like this sometimes the numbers will be down a little because people will be heading out of town.  It's definitely a tradition."