Two traditions will return for Santa’s Breakfast at the Keizer fire hall on Sunday, Dec. 14.
Of course, Santa will be there to hear the dreams of Keizer’s kids.
And Dan Woolley will be back to make his famous Mickey Mouse pancakes – for kids and any adult willing to ask.
“It’s a good breakfast,” said Woolley, who retired from fire service in 2009. “We put out a good product.”
The traditional breakfast runs from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Eggs, pancakes, sausage and beverages are on the menu. The meal is $9 for adults and $6 for children age 5 to 12. Those under 5 eat free.
No one can recall exactly when Santa’s Breakfast started, but some veterans believe it was sometime in the early 1980s.
The event was started to raise money for the Keizer Fire District’s annual candy cane run. The street-by-street delivery ended but candy canes are still the treat of the day for a drive-thru event at the fire hall on Saturday, Dec. 20.
This is Woolley’s 51st year as the master pancake chef.
He grew up on the southern Oregon coast in the Brookings area, where his father was a volunteer fire chief. Woolley recalls riding around on fire trucks and attending – but not participating – in drills since he was about 10.
He worked for the U.S. Forest Service on Siskiyou National Forest, serving as a wildland firefighter and being part of a helitack crew.
He joined the Keizer Fire District as a volunteer in 1974 while working his day job as a surveyor.
Woolley said that volunteers were advised the agency held special events to raise funds. He showed up to help set up for the Mother’s Day breakfast. He asked one of the agency leaders what was needed from him.
“He hands me a spatula and tells me, ‘You’re going to be a pancake flipper,’” Woolley recalled.
He would occasionally make pancakes for breakfast for his own family, carrying on his mother’s tradition of making turtle-shaped pancakes.
Woolley said he soon started making such pancakes at the fire hall breakfast, hand ladling out the batter and taking the extra time needed.
He said his family was on a trip to Disneyland about 1981 and his daughter ordered pancakes. They came perfectly formed as Mickey Mouse.
Woolley talked his way into the kitchen to get tips from the cook. There, he also was introduced to the pancake batter dispenser – a faster way to get batter onto the griddle.
He gets to the fire hall ahead of the breakfast rush to fire up the grill and to test the batter made by others.
“That’s a very critical part of it,” he said, noting the batter has to be just the right consistency to cook up well.
Woolley said one draw that keeps him coming back year after year is the chance to see the people of Keizer.
“You get to see people from our area that you might only get to see once or twice a year,” he said. “I really enjoy being able to do that.”
He takes some ribbing each year.
“Gosh, you still here?” people will ask him.
That’s fine with Woolley.
“I really love tradition,” he said.
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