Arnold Rotary Club members are regrouping to determine how to bring back an annual event next year.
On Aug. 27, the organization announced it canceled the Arnold Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast. The event, which traditionally begins at 8 a.m., was scheduled to be held Saturday at the First Baptist Church of Arnold.
Steve Smith, a Rotary Club member, said the group canceled the prayer breakfast due to low ticket sales.
“There was just a low signup,” Smith said. “It is a mystery why it happened. I wish I could say here is the reason we are not having the prayer breakfast. We wanted it to happen.”
Smith said the Rotary Club would like to hold the prayer breakfast next year. He said the organization also may make some changes for the event to try to attract more people.
Smith said he did not know when the Rotary Club started holding the prayer breakfast. He said the prayer breakfast was started by the late Walter Moore, who died Dec. 5, 2020.
“We would hate to see it go by the wayside,” he said. “We don’t want that to happen. We may need to hold it at a different time of the year. We will explore options.”
Prior to 2023, the Rotary Club held the prayer breakfast on the Saturday during Arnold Days, which traditionally is held on the third weekend of September. In 2023, the organization moved the breakfast to the Saturday before Arnold Days.
This year, Arnold Days will be held from Sept. 18-20 at Arnold City Park.
“That was a situation where there was too much happening in one weekend,” Smith said.
Last year, Smith said approximately 120 people attended the breakfast.
Smith said former Jefferson County Division 6 Circuit Judge Troy Cardona was scheduled to be this year’s keynote speaker. He also said Kurtis Schmidt of Arnold, who is a St. Louis University medical student and a classical pianist, was scheduled to perform.
“We are extremely disappointed,” Smith said of cancelling the event.
He said the prayer breakfast did not need to be canceled due to the Rotary Club holding a flea market on the same day. The market is from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday in the parking lot of the Fox C-6 Service Center, 849 Jeffco Blvd. .
“We have enough manpower to cover both of these things, and some people were preparing to come to both,” Smith said. “There is not any issue or problems within the Rotary Club, we did not think this would be a problem having two events because there is enough of us. I don’t think the flea market would have prevented people from coming to the breakfast.”