VALLEY VIEW - Many of the members of St. Andrew's United Methodist Church Men's Bible Class have never had breakfast in bed on Father's Day. Instead, they have been keeping a 64-year-old tradition alive by cooking it themselves at the eating house in Valley View Park.
The class will host its 64th annual Father's Day Breakfast from 5 to 7 a.m. Sunday in Valley View.
"That's a lot of breakfasts," David Williams, club president, said Tuesday.
The idea to start the tradition came after a few of the men from the Valley View church attended a Father's Day breakfast hosted by a Pottsville Bible club in 1949, Williams said. The building they decided to use each year was first a barn that was struck by lightning in 1910. While the original wood was destroyed, the stone foundation remained untouched.
"They had this foundation so they decided to reinforce the stone, put a roof on it and said this is going to be our eating house," Williams said. "It is hard to believe that all of this happens in a barn that was struck by lighting in 1910 and burned to the ground."
Williams said the eggs for the first breakfast were donated by local farmers, while butter came from the Spring Glen Creamery. Since then, various dairies, farms and stores in the area were used to make the breakfast. Organizers now use Redner's Markets for supplies and Bixler Country Meats, Valley View, for ham, while Twin Valley Farmer's Exchange, Hegins, donates three and a half cases of eggs.
Organizations and individuals have also donated equipment, such as the two replacement stoves and a grill for this year's breakfast.
Crafted by Speck Miller in 1951, the original cast iron frying pans are still used today, Williams said. After each breakfast, the pans are cleaned, treated in special grease and wrapped in plastic until next year.
"It's a tradition for many families and you see a lot of the same people," Barry Miller, club secretary and treasurer, said Tuesday.
He said he has been attending the breakfasts since 1976.
"It's really family-orientated," Williams said. "You see different generations. There are two different families that come each year with five generations of men."
Williams said he has been there since 1990.
As far as either of them know, they said their Bible club is the only one that still has an annual Father's Day breakfast.
The club does not have a shortage of volunteers either. About 35 people cook breakfast each year for about 500 people, Williams said.
"When a father signs up to have his child baptized at the church, we ask him to help at least once," Williams said. "If they enjoy it, certainly they are welcome back."
Of the five new volunteers last year, he said three are coming back.
"They made a promise to bring up their children in the church and support the labor in the church," he said. "This is a great way to fulfill that."
While the breakfast is free, the club receives between $1,500 and $1,800 in donations each year. Williams said that money goes back into the church and next year's breakfast.
"We never even thought about changing that because it has been doing quite well itself," Williams said.
The only requirement for guests is that they have to sign their name in a book. That book contains the names of every single person who has attended the annual breakfast.
There may not be a name in that book more often than that of Paul S. Wenrich, 87, of Williams Township, Dauphin County.
"If I make it this time, I made 62 years," Wenrich said Thursday.
Wenrich was at the original Valley View breakfast and was with his father, George D. Wenrich, when they attended the breakfast in Pottsville.
"My dad was the starter of the thing," he said. "He was president of the men's class when they had a breakfast down in Pottsville. All the way home they started talking about this breakfast and that's how it started years ago."
Wenrich said he wakes up at 4 a.m. every Father's Day to make the trip to Valley View.
"It's really nice and I go over a lot of times because I met a lot of people I don't see a lot throughout the year," he said. "It's a really nice affair."
There may not be as many people there each year as there used to be, but Wenrich said it is encouraging to see new volunteers step up each year and new fathers enjoying the breakfast.
"The most I ever remember was 790, that's the biggest pile I remember out there," he said. "It took a lot of ham and eggs."