The griddles fire back up at College United Methodist Church on Friday, Sept. 4, as monthly omelet dinners return from their summer break — a tradition that traces back nearly four decades.
Dr. Ken Holleman, a poultry science professor at Oregon State University and church member, launched the fundraiser in 1987 with Jeff and Jan Seekatz as team leaders, according to longtime volunteer Lori Sleeman. The idea was to supplement the church’s spaghetti dinner, held every April, as a way to help cover parsonage property taxes.
Nearly 39 years later, Sleeman and her husband, Larry, are still part of the crew — among roughly half a dozen volunteers remaining from the original team.
The menu has stayed close to its roots. Diners fill out an order slip choosing from green pepper, green onion, mushrooms, ham, and Jack or cheddar cheese, then hand it to one of five cooks who build the omelet to order. From there, customers grab a homemade scone and fruit, with butter, jam and salsa on one table and coffee, tea, water and juice on another. The lineup has thinned slightly over the years — a Weight Watchers omelet, a pizza omelet and an egg-white option have all come and gone.
The “Regular” and “Deluxe” remain the most popular orders, Sleeman said, the latter piling on every filling along with a split scone smothered in homemade sausage gravy. Regulars have their quirks.
“We have customers who order a Deluxe but want the gravy ladled over their omelet,” Sleeman said. “We have another customer who requests that the omelet be flipped over before fillings are added to make sure it’s cooked thoroughly. Another customer wants the omelet “runny.” Once we had a gentleman who brought his own jalapeños for us to add to his omelet and returned to
the counter quickly for a glass of milk to cool the burn!”
Behind the counter, the prep work starts days ahead. The Sleemans shop on Wednesdays, a group gathers Thursday morning to chop vegetables and another longtime volunteer, Glenda Plant, beats pitchers of eggs Friday morning before she and Lori Sleeman start baking scones at 2:30 p.m. Linda Doig makes the gravy on the afternoon of the dinner.
And here’s a very cool detail: Not every cook is a member of the congregation — some just love to help out, Sleeman said.
Mishaps happen. Skillets have toppled to the floor, cooks have collected their share of burn scars and one memorable year a late butane delivery forced the crew to cook on two four-burner stoves — a slow night, by Sleeman’s account.
Dinner runs 5-7 p.m. A regular omelet costs $8, a deluxe is $9, a child’s omelet (10 and under) is $6, and a scones-and-gravy plate runs $7. The church accepts cash only. At June’s dinner — the last before the summer break — the crew served 90 people, including regulars who drive in from Corvallis and Albany.
The omelet dinners don’t happen in July and August, two months that are set aside on purpose. Sleeman said kitchen heat, vacation schedules and competition from the Benton County Fair all factor in.
“Customers hate it when you sweat in their omelet,” she joked.
College United Methodist Church is located at 1123 Main St., next to the Philomath Museum.
2. Helping Harriet
For the first time in the nonprofit’s history, Harriet’s Housing is holding a public fundraiser — an effort to help the woman behind it get closer to retirement.
The event is set for 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18, at Suburban Christian Church, 2760 SW 53rd St. in Corvallis. Guests can enjoy pie, bid on items in a silent auction and support what organizers describe as a quarter century of work providing affordable housing, stability and belonging for some of the community’s most vulnerable residents.
Harriet Hughes, 89, oversees dozens of rooms across multiple properties in Philomath, housing people who are elderly, low-income or living with physical or mental disabilities — often the residents other landlords turn away. She takes no salary for the work, according to the nonprofit’s board, which says it would take as many as three people to replace what she currently does on her own.
“She would really like to retire someday,” organizers said in announcing the fundraiser, adding that the board is working to raise money to eventually hire staff to take over her responsibilities.
A short video promoting the event — produced by Albany-based Marks in Time — features a call to action from organizers: “Come enjoy a great evening for an even greater cause as we put the fun back in fundraiser.” Watch the video here.
It’s the first organized fundraising push for an operation that has largely run on Hughes’ own resourcefulness — and her insistence on staying reachable around the clock. Philomath News profiled Hughes and her work last November — read that story here.
3. News desert
Neighboring Lane County lost a second local news outlet this month. The Highway 58 Herald, which has covered Oakridge and the string of small communities along the 87-mile Highway 58 corridor through the Cascades, announced Aug. 22 that it will shut down with operations ceasing Sept. 15.
The Herald launched in 2021 as a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization after Oakridge’s previous weekly, the Dead Mountain Echo, closed in November 2020. Oakridge’s population is only around 3,300, which made the economics of running a small newsroom there especially difficult. It’s the same story so many rural communities know too well — no watchdog on local government, no dependable place for residents to find out what’s happening in their own backyard.
The Herald is the second Lane County news outlet to announce a closure this month. The Chronicle, which covered Springfield, Creswell, Cottage Grove and Pleasant Hill, shut down after 117 years in operation.
I don’t share this to be alarmist, but these closures hit close to home — literally, given how near Lane County is to us — and they’re a reminder of how fragile local news operations can be, including this one.
Philomath News remains free to read and ad-supported in part, but it survives because readers choose to pitch in. There’s no corporate parent covering the gap if support dries up — just me, and whatever you’re willing to contribute. If you value knowing what’s happening at City Hall, at the School Board or on the football field, and enjoy images from graduation or the summer parade, please consider becoming a member or making a one-time contribution. It’s what keeps a one-person newsroom like this one in business.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).
