American Red Cross has raised about $15,000 in its Heroes Campaign and hopes to add to that amount with a pancake breakfast set for next week.

The Red Cross can sell up to 150 tickets for the event at $6 each, half of which are still available for the event from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Dec. 5 at Applebee’s. The Red Cross will receive $5 for each ticket sold, according to Jennifer Capps, executive director of the American Red Cross.

“We absolutely hope it sells out,” Capps said, adding that it would be a perfect way to kick off Christmas shopping that day or before heading downtown for the Bowling Green Christmas parade.

Such fundraising events are important because they help support the organization’s $200,000 annual budget. Most of that money, Capps said, comes from fees the agency charges for such things as CPR training, baby-sitting classes, first aid and other courses.

The organization contracts with a company to do direct mail donation solicitations so the Heroes campaign has become a more personal way to raise funds.

So far, Barbara Sullivan and Becky Hankins in Morgantown raised more than $1,000 with their Comfort Foods for the Holidays event earlier this month.

“And they are still selling the cookbooks,” Capps said.

Hankins said they doubled what the event raised last year.

“And we hope to do that again for next year,” Hankins said. “We are already making plans for next November.”

Hankins said the 100 or so people at the event all left with smiles on their faces and were eager to do it again and people are still asking for the cookbooks.

“I was at a basketball game (Monday) night and somebody bought one then,” she said.

Bowling Green Parks and Recreation raised more than $1,100 and the Barren River District Health Department raised more than $500 by allowing employees to pay $4 to wear jeans on a Friday. Culver’s has raised more than $700.

“Plus we have gotten monetary donations from American Legion, Knights of Columbus, both Wal-Marts and American Bank and Trust,” Capps said. “We also had some individual donations.”

Final counts are still out for a fundraiser by Phi Delta Gamma at Western Kentucky University, from East Logan Water District and chambers of commerce in Edmonson and Butler counties, and from a Christmas bazaar earlier this month in Bowling Green.

“And hopefully there are some heroes out there we don’t know about yet,” she said. “Our goal is $30,000. We’ve got to set the goal somewhere. But we are very pleased with the response so far and the heroes that are involved.”

Capps said last year the campaign raised just less than $10,000.

Funding that the agency raises is spent to offer the variety of services it does. Those include disaster preparedness, finding food and shelter for those who experience disaster, as well as facilitating communication between families here and soldiers abroad.

— To reserve a ticket, call 781-7377 or go by Red Cross offices at 430 Center St.