Get Free Pancakes, Help Sick Kids On IHOP National Pancake Day

PHOENIX, AZ — On Tuesday, March 1 locals can eat a free stack of IHOP pancakes while having the opportunity to help sick kids at Phoenix Children's Hospital.

Participating IHOP locations in the Valley will offer a free short stack of buttermilk pancakes from 7 a.m.-10 p.m. while encouraging visitors to donate to Phoenix Children's.

On Tuesday, IHOP's National Pancake Day, participating restaurants across the country will offer free pancakes while asking for donations to Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, like Phoenix Children's.

Local donations will go toward helping Phoenix Children's patients like Yeira, who has a gastrointestinal disease so rare that she has the only known case in the world, according to a news release. There is no known cure for her condition. Yeira's intestines don't work, so she must receive nutrition through a method that bypasses her intestines. She also receives lipids through her veins, but these methods of providing her with nutrition causes lymphedema in half of her body. Lymphedema is localized fluid retention and tissue swelling. Yeira gets daily treatments for the fluid retention, and if she doesn't receive the treatment, the fluids could seep into her organs, according to Phoenix Children's.

One time, Yeira had a heart attack after fluid seeped into her heart.

Since IHOP began celebrating National Pancake Day in 2006, it has raised more than $30 million for charity. This year, IHOP hopes to raise $50,000 for Phoenix Children’s Hospital, according to the news release.