Members of the Burbank Road Kings left behind their cars for pancakes on Saturday at the Don Redding Museum, an event spearheaded by their first female president Karen Arellano.
Pancake Breakfast
In combating the Saturday rain and cold weather, members of Road Kings bundled up in all of their Road Kings gear from the 71 years of its establishment. White sweaters, shiny purple bomber jackets and jean jackets all waited patiently in line.
Coffee, orange juice, eggs, sausage and, despite the rain, non-soggy pancakes were all served along with their fixings.
“We can all get together and just have a nice breakfast. and socialize,” said Karen, president of Road Kings.
The idea for the event was accredited to Don Redding who said he got the idea from previous charities that he was involved in.
The pancake breakfast let members get to know each other beyond the faces of their cars.
“When you get older, you don’t really get out and circulate like you do when you’re younger,” said Redding, owner of the self-titled museum, “so this this event, it’s getting people together that haven’t seen each other for maybe a year or two.”
Karen Arellano, first female president of Road Kings
Karen was the second woman to join the club after going on one of her and her husband’s first dates.
“She’s into the cars and one thing about her it’s like, forget the box of chocolates, I want some chrome parts on my car,” said her husband and Road Kings member Gary Arellano.
At the root of it all, Karen has always seen the club as a social car club and has always wanted to be involved.
She worked as a treasurer for the club for three years before being voted into the presidency.
“Things are changing,” said Karen, “but we all still have that great appreciation of these old cars, so that’s always a very unique thing. I mean the news is bringing it that they want to take our gas cars away from us. They want to do this, but these cars are history. They tell so much about us.”
This role is on top of her full-time, 40-hour weeks working at a bank, where she has worked for the last 45 years. She said that she is aiming to work for them until she hits 50 years.
Karen was praised by her husband and peers for her unwavering dedication to not only the club as a whole, but to her role as president.
“She keeps going,” said Gary. “She doesn’t stop. What’s great is that she participates in all this stuff and she just loves doing it … A lot of the presidents don’t do that.”
