PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Fire Department is cooking up plans for the annual Pancake Benefit Breakfast on Saturday.
The eighth annual breakfast will run from 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. at the Port Angeles Fire Station, 102 E. Fifth St.
Tickets, which will be sold at the door, are $5 for adults, $3 for children 3 to 12 and free for children younger than 3.
The breakfast will be in the apparatus bay of the fire station, said Fire Chief Dan McKeen.
The event is a fundraiser for the Port Angeles Fire Department Auxiliary, which raised $2,400 in the three-hour period last year, said Tami Ziegler, president of the auxiliary.
“What I love about this event is seeing the younger and the elder and the in-between that all love a fire station,” Ziegler said.
“There are these guys out there who are being told by volunteers how the trucks work, and they are just as much in awe as a 5-year-old.”
Scholarships
The money raised at the event goes toward scholarships that are given annually to Port Angeles-area graduate pursuing firefighter or emergency medical careers, Ziegler said.
The auxiliary also uses the money to put together relief baskets for families displaced by fires.
They contain such items as gift cards for clothing, phone cards, personal hygiene items, laundry soap and other immediate necessities, as well as teddy bears and coloring books for children.
Money also goes to community outreach services including the annual Fire Safety Week, work with the Red Cross, fire prevention and safety public education programs, and support for victims left with no clothing or housing after fires.
“The auxiliary and volunteers make this a success every year,” McKeen said.
The benefit breakfast typically draws more than 500 people.
The menu includes pancakes, sausage, applesauce, bananas, coffee and juice.
In addition to the pancake breakfast, other activities are photographs and a raffle.
For $1 per photo, children — or adults — may pose in a cutout of a firefighter or with a real one. The photos will be printed on-site.
Raffle items will include a 5-foot-tall teddy bear with a fire truck quilted blanket and books as well as the opportunity for a Port Angeles child to be driven to school in a fire truck and four adult pool passes to Sol Duc Hot Springs.
Tickets for the raffle are $5 each or $20 for five tickets.
For more information, phone the Port Angeles Fire Department at 360-417-4650.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.