Mackinac Race: One monster breakfast, 200 sailboats

Volunteers will be grilling pancakes and sausage in Point Edward’s Waterfront Park Saturday morning as about 200 sailboats competing in the Bayfield Mackinac Race make their way up the St. Clair River to the starting line in Lake Huron.

The annual race from Port Huron to Mackinac Island will celebrate its centennial in 2024 and the fundraising breakfast served by the Rotary Club of Sarnia and volunteers for boat watchers who line the Canadian side of the river is also a longstanding tradition.

“It’s been a tradition in our community for over 40 years, and that’s something to celebrate,” club president Mark Taylor said.

More than 50 volunteers, including club members and others, typically cook and serve more than 2,000 breakfasts and raise between $10,000 and $15,000 for community projects supported by the service club.

“I think people love getting out and seeing the boats, and being with nature,” said Carolyn Leaver-Luciani, one of the organizers.

“Especially with COVID, we didn’t get to see a lot of people for a lot of years.”

Breakfasts of pancakes, sausage and a choice of coffee, tea or juice will be on sale from 7:30 am to noon at a cost of $10 for adults and $5 for children.

The club is trying to make the breakfast environmentally friendly by asking those attending to bring their own containers for water that will be supplied by Kerns Water, as well as considering bringing their own plates and cutlery, if they’re able, so less waste ends up going to the landfill.

“We’re trying,” said Leaver-Luciani. “It’s so hard with an event this big to try and keep the prices down and go green,” but “we’re doing what we can.”

There will be a station where the public can wash their plates and cutlery after eating, but there will also be cutlery and paper plates available for those without their own, Leaver-Luciani said.

“We have about 1,300 sets of metal forks and knives that have been donated to us,” she said. “We use those first, and then if they do get all used up we do have plastic cutlery but we’re hoping we don’t have to use it.”

Crews will arrive at the park next to the Blue Water Bridge Friday to set up tents, tables, chairs and grills, and volunteers begin work at 5 am Saturday to prepare for breakfast.

Leaver-Luciani said they aim to have food ready right “from the get-go so we’re ahead of things.”

Advance tickets can be bought at DeGroot’s Nurseries, Pathways Health Center for Children, the Inn of the Good Shepherd and Manley’s.

“People with advanced tickets get in quicker than people who buy them at the gate,” Leaver-Luciani said.

There is a bike corral for those who decide to cycle down to the park, she said.

Breakfast goes ahead, rain or shine.

There was a downpour one year just as breakfast was finishing, “but it felt beautiful because we were sweating like crazy,” she said.

“One year it rained during, but it wasn’t like a downpour. It didn’t affect our grills. It didn’t affect people serving.”

Once the cooking stops Saturday around 11 am or 11:30 am, work begins to take everything down, Leaver-Luciani said.

“And then we have to go wash 1,300 forks and 1,300 knives, and clean the grills and put them away,” she said. “We do that generally throughout the week after.”

Leaver-Luciani has been helping to organize the breakfast for years, but said club member Bill Hoad is “the brains behind the operation.”

Hoad has been involved in the breakfast “since the very first get-go,” Leaver-Luciani said.

“He does everything, but he’s kind of the quiet man behind the scenes,” she said. “I’m the loud one out front.”

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