Lewisport Lions host Pancakes with Santa event with turnout of more than 100

The Lewisport Lions Club hosted its first Pancakes with Santa, a free event, on Saturday, Dec. 13, at the Lewisport Community Center. The morning featured pancakes, sausage, juice, coffee, goodie bags and gifts for children, as well as a visit and photo opportunity with Santa Claus.

“Brenda Haycraft of Lewisport is really the number one person to thank for this event,” Lewisport Lions Club President Dakota Basham said. “She was the one who came to us with the idea. We just kind of jumped in and helped with buying and preparing the food. She did a lot of the planning and decorating. Special thanks to Brenda Haycraft and her family for their work on this event.”

The focus was to give residents a fun way to celebrate the season close to home. Haycraft said the idea for Pancakes with Santa grew out of a three-day Hallmark “Christmas in July” event she attended in Georgia last year. She loved the concept of a community breakfast with Santa and thought it would be a good fit for Lewisport.

“I want to thank Dakota Basham for letting us do this and for wanting to make this a yearly event,” she said.

She and her daughter, April Hogland, bought decorations at Goodwill and spent three days transforming the Lewisport Community Center for the event. Hogland, who lives in Illinois, traveled down to help her mother decorate and brought donated toys to place under the trees for the children.

They set up three Christmas trees at the back of the center—a parents’ tree, a girls’ tree and a boys’ tree—and placed the toys under each one. Children were invited to choose a gift from their tree and a present from the parents’ tree to give to their mom and dad.

“A little girl went and got a Barbie doll from under the girls’ tree. She was so amazed by that little doll. I am most definitely going to bring that back next year. It seemed like it brought a little twinkle in their eyes,” Haycraft said. “The presents weren’t wrapped. We just put them under each tree so they could pick whatever they wanted. We had the goodie bags filled with candy that Santa handed out to each of the kids. I like giving back. I think a community that works together makes a better community instead of everyone going their own way; it builds it up. I’m looking forward to next year.”

Haycraft previously worked at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, where she frequently decorated areas used by the base community. She and her husband, retired U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sergeant Ernest Haycraft, spent about 15 years there before settling in Hancock County. The high school sweethearts, originally from Breckinridge County, have been married nearly 60 years and have lived in Lewisport for 13 years.

“We were really pleased with the turnout. This is our first year doing this event. The first time doing anything, you never really know what to expect, but we had more than 100 people come through,” Basham said. “It was a pretty busy crowd consistently from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. There were a lot of happy kids who were very excited to see Santa and eat pancakes. Overall, I would definitely call it a success for our first year. Hopefully now that people know about it and it went well the first time, we can continue to grow it.”

George Gammon played Santa Claus. He plays Santa locally at various events each year and was especially good with the children. Basham said it was very clear that Gammon was happy to be there and excited to spread some Christmas joy, which created an even more welcoming vibe.

“This was not a fundraiser. It was just something that the Lions Club put on this year to do something for the community,” Basham said.

Many people thanked the club members for putting the event together for the community and giving the children a special opportunity to visit with Santa, he said.

“Traditionally we’ve done a booth at the Hancock County Fair, the Lewisport Heritage Festival and the Chicken Cook and things like that. But this is a good example of someone having a new idea and wanting to do something different. We tell people if there is something outside of the normal events we do that you think can benefit or help the community, then we want to help in different ways also. This was a good example of a lady who is not a Lions Club member who had an idea that kind of pushed us out of our comfort zone, and we worked with her to do something new for the community,” Basham said.

Basham has served as the Lewisport Lions Club president for three years. Julie Newton is vice president, and Tom Evans is secretary and treasurer. The Lewisport Lions Club meets on the second Thursday of each month at 5:30 p.m. at the Lewisport Community Center, 15 Pell Street. For more information, call 270-929-3932.