A Feast Of Giving Annual Hauser Lake Breakfast Helps Young Cancer Victims

Pancake prices haven’t risen with inflation.

Treating cancer has.

The Hauser Lake Fire Department’s all-you-can-eat pancake feast is still $3, as it was 12 years ago when Fire Captain Gary Mobbs’ then 2-year-old daughter was diagnosed with cancer. That year, Mobbs’ fellow firefighters held a pancake feed to help him pay the bills.

A decade after Shalena’s death during a bone marrow transplant, the tradition of giving goes on in her name. Members of this tiny community on the Washington-Idaho border came out to breakfast in force Sunday to raise money for a local child’s cancer treatment.

Three bucks buys unlimited pancakes, biscuits and gravy, and homemade sausage made with imported German spices. With help from grocery store donations, the cost of breakfast is kept low so even those of meager means can afford to give.

“This isn’t just for the family,” Mobbs explained. “It’s to bring the community together. People like to help people. It’s Christmastime and people get warm fuzzies when they can come and support somebody.”

This year, that somebody is Michele, a bubbly 9-year-old girl from North Idaho who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia last February.

Sunday, the long breakfast line snaked past coiled fire hoses and captain’s hats, out the door and into the parking lot. By noon, the fire chief had cracked a record number of eggs and fed nearly 500 guests for the largest attendance yet at “Shalena’s Annual Breakfast with Santa.”

The Hauser Lake Fire Department raises between $1,000 and $2,000 annually to help a local family pay for cancer treatment expenses. Mobbs makes an emotional trip to the oncology ward every fall to find a family who could use the help.

Many are hesitant to accept it. Michele’s family asked that her full name and hometown not be released. Mobbs understands.

“People have pride. But I’ve been there and done that and I know what it’s like.”

Michele’s dad admits it’s difficult to keep up with the medical bills. Although the family has good insurance, his wife had to give up her job to stay with Michele at the hospital. Intensive care runs $1,000 a day - for just the room.

Michele’s type of cancer accounted for approximately 2,000 of the 2,600 cases of leukemia diagnosed this year among U.S. children, according to the American Cancer Society.

And over the last 30 years, the five-year survival rate of children with leukemia has dramatically increased - from 4 percent to 73 percent.

Chemotherapy is the most effective method of treating leukemia, but it can be debilitating. Michele recently became ill when her body wouldn’t accept the most recent dosage of chemotherapy.

But now that the treatments are over, Michele’s feeling better. She even went back to school last Wednesday. Sunday she moved through the crowd at the fire station, doling out smiles liberally with her grandmother and father in tow.

“She feels good,” her dad said. “When she feels good, she’s always a real live wire.”

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