- July 1, 2026
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As a long line of hungry families stretch around Windermere Town Hall on the morning of the Fourth of July, Mayor Andy Williams takes pride in his community being like the perfect pancake — rare and made with care.
Williams, a fifth-generation Windermere resident, has been attending the town’s annual Fourth of July pancake breakfast since the tradition began in the early ’90s with charitable roots.
“It was a fundraiser raising money for the Historic Preservation Board,” he said. “The Town Hall at the time was in rough shape. It has evolved. It’s grown and shrunk, and now it’s definitely on the growing side again.”
No matter the size, Windermere and Winter Garden’s patriotic pancake breakfasts always have been about celebrating patriotism and community.
While Windermere’s breakfast began as a fundraiser, it has remained focused on bringing residents together. Running from 9 to 11 a.m., the breakfast now is free to attend, allowing town families to enjoy a morning of food and connection.
“It’s a great community event that’s smaller,” Williams said. “It’s not like a food truck (night), where you’ve got 1,000 people there. The impact is really on the town residents. We see a lot of people walking and biking up that morning for the event. They come straight from their … house, and they’re not having to get in the car to go.”
Even with the small-town appeal of the event, it continues to draw more residents. Last year had the largest turnout yet.
“We went through 30 gallons of pancake batter,” Williams said. “We normally have at least a bucket left over that we end up donating to Edgewood (Children’s) Ranch, but last year was the first year we ran out, and nobody really understands why. We didn’t do anything different.”
With hungry mouths to feed, making the perfect pancake isn’t always possible, but when it does, it’s special.
“Everything is patience,” Williams said. “The griddle can’t be too hot or the pancake burns and it’s raw in the middle. It can’t be too cold, because they just don’t cook all the way through. In the line of people, that perfect pancake doesn’t happen all the time, but when you do see it, it’s special like our events.”
Much like creating the perfect pancake, Williams said living in Windermere requires patience and effort.
“We have a special community to live in,” Williams said. “It’s not easy, but people who want to live in Windermere do it for the people that are here. They love their neighbors.”
Williams said Windermere’s dedicated group of about 50 volunteers is the driving force behind the pancake breakfast. Williams said the events such as the Fourth of July Pancake Breakfast often feel like a high school reunion.
“Not every community is small enough to have this kind of event, where so many people know each other,” Williams said. “Our event, our residents, they walk in, and it’s akin to walking into a high school reunion. Where you can’t take but five steps without running into someone you know.”
Winter Garden Masonic Lodge No. 165, in partnership with the city of Winter Garden, also is hosting an Independence Day celebration, the 22nd annual All-American Kids Parade & Pancake Breakfast.
Ken McGowan, secretary of the Winter Garden Masonic Lodge, said in the breakfast and parade’s 22nd installment, it has the same mission to invite families to eat, decorate and show their patriotism.
Starting at 8 a.m., the lodge offers free breakfast to children under 12, first responders and veterans. All other attendees make an $8 donation. Then at 10 a.m., the red, white and blue-decorated bikes and riders parade the streets of Winter Garden.
In its early installments, the parade and breakfast drew in no more than 150 people, McGowan said.
“When we first started, we had a small trailer on the side of the lodge that we would pull up and our speakers would stand on, and all the kids and people would meet on the side,” McGowan said.
Since its humble beginnings, the annual event has grown and continued to unite the Winter Garden community. This year, more than a dozen charities and groups are supporting the event. For McGowan and the Masonic lodge, the community impact makes it even more meaningful.
“It just brings the community together,” McGowan said. “What we do as a lodge is the majority of what we do is community-based, bringing families together. The Fourth of July lets us all get together to celebrate our country, spend time with our kids and do something fun with them. They love the parade.”
McGowan described the event as a celebration of “community, family and patriotism.” The breakfast serves as an opportunity for residents to come together and enjoy the holiday with their neighbors.
“It’s a way that we can show masonry in its truest form,” McGowan said. “Doing charitable work and bringing the community together and bringing families together to enjoy a morning and putting away everything else. We really have a good time with that, just the success of everybody coming out and getting involved and just having a great morning.”
In Windermere and Winter Garden, community is the backbone of these sparkling Fourth of July celebrations.
“It’s the Fourth of July, we all have pride about our country, and we have those patriotic feelings,” Williams said. “That’s the first part of it, and I think everybody coming together with the same feelings, you appreciate the town you live in, the community you’re a part of.”
