Community breakfast
Moses Lake Firefighter Schrade Rouse hands Mabel Hickok, 4, a fire hat and a sticker during the annual Pancake Breakfast jointly organized by the Moses Lake Lions Club and Local 1258 of the International Association of Fire Fighters. Proceeds from the breakfast, which was started a number of years ago to coincide with the official opening of hunting season, will go to help the Lions Club provide the needy with eyeglasses and hearing aids and to the union’s benevolent fund to help kids get warm clothes for the winter.
CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Mabel Hickok, 4, and her sister Sloane, 6, sit at the wheel of a Moses Lake Fire Department truck during the 2022 Pancake Breakfast, jointly sponsored by the Moses Lake Lions Club and Local 1258 of the International Association of Fire Fighters. It’s the first breakfast since 2019, and was canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
MOSES LAKE — Six-year-old Sloane Hickok danced happily as she stood in the back seat of the Moses Lake Fire Department fire truck and looked at all the equipment.
“They’ve even got headphones!” she clapped. “This is so exciting!”
Hickok climbed over the seat with her sister Mabel, 4, and the two girls then played with the steering wheel of the giant MLFD fire truck parked out behind the main fire station at 701 E. Third Ave. The Hickoks were only one of many families that came for the annual Pancake Breakfast, a joint community building and fundraising effort of Local 1258 of the International Association of Firefighters and the Moses Lake Lions Club.
It’s the first time the two organizations have been able to host this event since 2019 and saw firefighters cooking up eggs, sausage, hash browns and pancakes. They also stood next to fire trucks and the department’s firefighting boat so children could climb on them to explore and play.
“It’s been a couple of years, we’re post-COVID, and we want to get this going again,” said David Durfee, an MLFD firefighter and president of the union local. “It looks like it’s a good success.”
Durfee said the MLFD enjoys hosting the annual breakfast because it brings both the community and the fire department together.
“It’s just as fun for the crew here as it is for the public because everybody gets to be together again,” he said. “We’re able to feed people and people are laughing and leaving here full.”
Lions Club Treasurer Dave Dollarhide said the proceeds are split between the union and the club, with the club using its portion to help fund its charitable projects like providing eyeglasses and hearing aids to the needy and the union using its funds to help provide coats and warm clothes for kids in the winter as well as help fire victims with temporary accommodations. The breakfast normally raises about $2,500, he added.
“Another neat thing this year is a fireman went down to the warming center and they took orders and fixed 25 meals and donated them to the homeless,” Dollarhide said.
“It’s a nice, short fundraiser that has an impact on what we’re able to do and what the firemen are able to do. And everybody seems to really enjoy it,” added William West, president of the Moses Lake Lions Club.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.
