Parks Hosting Pancake Dinners, Winter Activities

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center, 1531 W. Vliet St. Photo taken Nov. 22, 2022 by Graham Kilmer.

Milwaukee County Parks is kicking off the holiday season with two community pancake breakfasts, which will also offer opportunities for families to take pictures with Santa.

Parks hosted the first pancake breakfast at Kosciuszko Community Center on Saturday, Dec. 9, and will host another at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center on Saturday, Dec. 16.

The pancake breakfasts will allow families and children to meet and take pictures with Santa Claus. Tickets to the Kosciuszko breakfast are $5 and the King Center breakfast is free for the first 200 children who attend.

Along with the pancake breakfasts, Parks is also offering several winter activities at parks around the county including hiking, glow skating, skiing, snowshoeing and pickleball.

“Our Milwaukee County Parks are full of activity, programming, and fun during the entire year, especially during the winter months,” said Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

Milwaukee County Parks is advertising Wehr Nature Center in Whitnall Park as a venue for “winter hiking.” The nature center offers 5 miles of trail running through 220 acres of protected natural areas including woodlands, wetlands and prairie. The nature center will be open throughout the winter.

Once there’s a quality dusting of snow on the ground, the Whitnall Golf Course club house will offer ski and snowshoe rentals, along with the food and beverages sold there throughout the year.

At the end of the month, Wilson Ice Arena will begin offering “glow skating” from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Glow-in-the-dark necklaces will be provided and skate rentals will be available.

And just because the summer is over doesn’t mean pickleball is, too. Parks is offering open pickleball courts at the Milwaukee County Sports Complex in Franklin on a handful of dates between December and February.