Any given Wednesday morning outside Peggy Winckowski’s house in St. Louis you will find a horde of hungry teenagers. But they aren’t just there for the food. They are there for a hug for and from Grandma. It’s become such a tradition that they have named themselves the Wednesday Breakfast Club.
Sophomore at Bishop Duboug High School, Sam Crowe, was the one who first started the Wednesday Breakfast Club, which originally met at a local diner. One day he announced “my grandma can cook better than this,” and so it was that the diner was nixed as the meeting place in favor of Grandma Peggy’s. Every Wednesday Grandma Peggy would wake at 5 a.m. to prepare for a dozen or so hungry teens that would show up for bacon and eggs by 7 a.m.. That was until the heartbreaking July day in 2022 when Sam, just 15 years old, was tragically killed in a hit and run accident.
Photo byPeggy Winckowski
On the day of Sam’s death, a group of his closest friends — the same teens who always attended the weekly Wednesday breakfasts — congregated at Winckowski’s house.