Pancakes with Santa Brings in 1,132 Guests!

Pancakes with Santa Brings in 1,132 Guests!

Put Lions Club, pancake breakfast and Santa together and what do you get? A Happy Jolly Christmas Community Celebration! Malden Lions Club fed 1,132 guests during Pancakes with Santa on December 2, 2023. There was a line of guests down the exhibit hall, out the door, down the walkway and around the building! Santa was in hundreds of pictures, folks enjoyed pancake and Kids got a chance to go shopping for presents for Mom and Dad. Guests visited from all over the Missouri Bootheel and Northeast Arkansas, specifically the Missouri towns of Kennett, Bernie, Gideon, Campbell, Caruthersville, Mathews, Oran, Sikeston, Holcomb, Dexter, Lilbourn, Puxico and the Arkansas town of Piggott, Corning and Paragould. We also had some visitors from Emmet, Nebraska! How do we know where our guests were from? Malden Lions Club members ask folks for their zip code!

One of the special aspects of Pancakes with Santa is the Kids only Gift Shop. Each child pre-k through 6th grade receives two free tickets to exchange for gifts for their parents/guardians. For many kids the gift room is their first chance to experience the joy of giving, which is a crucial step in developing empathy, and getting a chance to experience the anticipation and the joy of someone opening your gift, that’s just magical. Denton Kooyman (also a Malden Lion) explained that last year his daughter Kinsley was afraid to go back into the gift shop, which is behind a decorated facade of a shack. He went on to say " this year, she had a big grin on her face, didn't even wait for the elf escort, and comes running out excitedly us what her mom and I are getting!" Children get the chance to learn the joy of giving and sharing, they gain confidence, develop selective reasoning skills and build independence!

Many of our visitors make this an annual Christmas experience and a few are second generation. Holli Davis who is now a regular Pancakes with Santa volunteer and donor brought her daughters to the original Breakfast with Santa run by the Malden Chamber Maids. Her Daughters now bring their children to the event and her eldest Granddaughter Jules became a volunteer Elf this year! Speaking of volunteers, this year we 42 people volunteered to work this event. Volunteers helped lead guests through the Gift Room, made pancakes helped wrap present, took pictures, printed pics, helped keep this clean, handed out tickets, welcomed guests and made this event possible. Big shout out to Robin Modlin from Republic Services who brought 7 volunteers with her!

Santa visited with hundreds of kids and Lions Club printed out over 200 free photos!

Malden Lions Club has been serving its community since 1925, located in rural farming community in the Missouri Bootheel. The Bootheel Youth Museum opened its doors to the public in 1997 and began hosting the original Breakfast with Santa in partnership with the Malden chambermaid in 2005. The museum will be free on Dec 2 from 10 to 4. The Bootheel Youth Museum has hundreds of hands-on activities and 25,000 square feet of themed exhibition spaces including: BYM Children Village, This Island Mars: A Space Adventure, Missouri Nature, Shadow Room, Bubble Room Sun, Earth, Universe and Punky’s Lab. Nearly 80,000 children have enjoyed a variety of educational enriching programs. The Bootheel Youth Museum has had over 625,000 visitors in its history. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday thru Saturday and Sunday 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and is located at 700A. North Douglass St. (Business Highway 25) in Malden Missouri, please call 573-276-3600 or visit bootheelyouthmuseum.org for more information.