If you saw junior Callie King wearing a bright yellow chicken suit to class Wednesday, here’s why: she was promoting Lewis House of Pancakes, her dorm’s most popular signature event.
Friday night at 9 pm, for the first time since last year’s COVID-19 residence hall visitor restrictions were lifted, Lewis Hall will open its doors for the annual late-night breakfast fundraiser colloquially known as LHOP.
“On each floor of Lewis, including the basement, there’s a different food,” King, who serves as this year’s hall president, explained. “There’s bacon in the basement, juices in the lobby. Eggs are on the second floor, pancakes are on the third and cinnamon rolls are on the fourth. We have tables set up and lines throughout Lewis. We have music going the whole time, and it’s super fun.”
For a $5.00 ticket, students get access to unlimited, freshly-cooked food from 9 pm to 1 am. All proceeds benefit the Food Bank of Northern Indiana.
Even last year, when COVID restrictions forced LHOP outside onto North Quad and permitted only the sale of pre-packaged food, the Lewis Chicks managed to raise about $4800. This year, King expects to raise even more money and anticipates a turnout of more than 1500 hungry students, a similar number to her first LHOP in 2019.
“It’s super exciting to be back to normal, especially because we have two classes — both the freshmen and the sophomores — who haven’t experienced a real LHOP,” said King. “All the girls in Lewis are super excited, and I’ve heard a lot of buzz on campus about LHOP being back.”
She fondly remembers her own freshman year working LHOP with her new friends at the basement bacon station which first years are traditionally forced to work because, as she explained, laughing, “you — and all of Lewis — smell like bacon for days after!”
“It was a great bonding experience for me and my Lewis friends,” King — who went on to serve as the LHOP event commissioner last year and now offers her expertise to this year’s sophomore commissioners — recalled. “I’m most excited for all the freshmen to be involved. Something we’ve really tried to do in Lewis this year is increase freshman engagement. We’ve been encouraging a lot of freshmen to sign up for shifts at LHOP, and I think it’ll be a super good opportunity for some inner-Lewis bonding that wasn’t possible last year.”
One of this year’s event commissioners, sophomore, Morgan Wolf knew she wanted to get involved in LHOP from the moment she was placed in Lewis the summer before her freshman year. Alongside fellow commissioner and classmate Anna Koziol, Wolf has been planning and preparing for the event since early August.
“We started with getting in contact with past commissioners to learn all the basics since Anna and I have never actually experienced a traditional LHOP,” said Wolf. “Then we transitioned to making budgets and designing how we will advertise. Since getting back to school, we have ordered t-shirts to promote the event, picked up all the food and organized a team of about 150-200 Lewis Chicks to work the night of as well as promote the event.”
Wolf said she looks forward to listening to music in Lewis, hanging out with friends and supporting an amazing cause.
She added that LHOP pre-sale tickets will be sold outside both dining halls Friday from 5 pm - 8 pm leading up to the event for $5. Students can also purchase tickets, as well as t-shirts for $15, at the door.
“It’s such a great cause and we’d love to see as many people as possible to raise money for the food bank,” said King. “We’re super excited to see everyone there.”
Annual LHOP breakfast fundraiser returns
Callie King
Callie King
