Breakfast tradition continues with pancakes

What’s better than hot, fluffy pancakes covered in butter and syrup to help relieve the stress of finals week? Serving that breakfast at midnight.

Mark Wirtz, director of dining services, created the tradition in 2007. From 10 p.m. to midnight, an average of 1,000 students show up for a meal of pancakes, sausage, tater tots, desserts and drinks at no charge. Campus volunteers serve up the food. 

“The staff volunteers truly enjoy connecting with the students during this time, and the students have always expressed their appreciation for this late-night study break,” said Wirtz. Kathie Shafer ’85, vice president for operations, and several senior staff members serve at the event each year. “I think it’s important, because it provides a fun activity for students to see we care about them at a stressful time of the year,” she said.

Pancakes are nothing new to the Messiah campus. In 1969, students gathered in the basement of the Alumni Auditorium—which housed the college’s cafeteria before Eisenhower Campus Center was built—for a pancake-eating contest. What a difference 50 years can make. Although current students aren’t competing to see who can eat the most pancakes, they can still enjoy some comfort food as a welcome study break during finals.

— Molly McKim ’23