By Carl Manning
American Red Cross

Lacardia Harmon was enjoying breakfast at a Red Cross shelter where she has been staying after being displaced from her apartment complex when a tornado struck her area of St. Louis.

This breakfast was different from the others because it was prepared by the volunteers from Joy of Pancakes, a St. Louis entertainment and art company owned by Dan Drake, whose claim to fame is creating pancake portraits.

While the shelter residents were eating the food cooked in Dan’s team, they got the chance to watch him create his portraits, taking requests from the residents who provided photos from their cellphones that he copied.

“It’s really nice and he’s really got talent for sure,” Lacardia said. “I’m really grateful that people are nice enough to come here and do this for us.”

Nearby, Patricia Keith, another shelter resident, is enjoying the bacon and eggs that she got in the serving line along with some small pancakes designed more for eating than viewing.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” she said of Dan’s artwork. “It was a blessing for him to come here and what he did was just beautiful.”

While Dan was busy creating the pancake portraits, members of his team were busy in the kitchen turning out pans filled with scrambled eggs and several pounds of bacon and sausage links.

Dan slowly put together his artwork using a variety of colored pancake batter to make the portraits that he slowly cooks on a griddle. A large monitor screen nearby provided those in the dining room with a close up view of him creating.

When it reached the right point, he flipped the pancake for all to see. Often it was portraits of residents and in one case there was a smiling tabby cat.

He said a lot of people prefer to save their pancake portrait rather than eat it and he explains to them how they can do that.

Dan, who has been doing pancake art for nearly two decades, said he came to the shelter after some of his friends talked about going out and helping people put tarps on their damaged roofs and pick up debris from yards and streets.

“I wanted to find a way that I could help those in need and decided to use my talents to spread joy to those needing it,” he said. “I wanted to help and this is really positive.”