Miss America to Flip, Serve Pancakes at Hollywood IHOP

Miss America 2013, Mallory Hagan, will flip and serve pancakes at the Hollywood IHOP on Tuesday as part of a nationwide fundraising effort on behalf of Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.

IHOP will give away one free short stack of buttermilk pancakes per customer. In return for the pancakes, customers will be asked to consider leaving a donation for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, which raises funds for 170 nonprofit children's hospitals across North America.

The Glendale-based chain began National Pancake Day in 2006 and more than $10 million has been raised for charities in the communities in which it operates, including more than $3 million last year, when 4 million pancakes were given away.

IHOP has set a goal of raising $3 million on Tuesday.

National Pancake Day stems from Pancake Day, a centuries old tradition in England, where people rid ice boxes of dairy products in preparation for Lent. Pancakes were made to use up the supply of eggs, milk, butter and other dairy products prohibited during Lent.

The 23-year-old Hagan was raised in Opelika, Ala., and lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. She is studying advertising, marketing and communications at The Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and plans to pursue a career in cosmetics and fragrance marketing.

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