MLCA feed sets fundraising record
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 8 years AGO
Courtesy photo The crab and prime rib feed to benefit the Moses Lake Christian Academy athletic programs and facilities set a fundraising record.
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | March 21, 2018 3:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — The 10th annual Crab and Prime Rib Feed benefiting the athletic programs and facilities at Moses Lake Christian Academy over the weekend broke all records.
The dinner and the auction that followed raised about $274,000, said MLCA director Stephanie Voigt. “It was an amazing evening. We did not expect what happened,” Voigt said. “We’ve never made even close to that. It was unreal.”
About 800 people attended, and the crowd filled the commercial building at the Grant County Fairgrounds.
The dinner includes a live auction, and once the auction items had been sold, attendees started donating other items for sale on the spot, Voigt said. Four Gonzaga University basketball tickets were among the original auction items, and two additional GU basketball tickets were donated after the first four sold.
Participants in MLCA athletic programs set up the tables, serve the dinner and clean up afterwards, with the assistance of other MLCA students. “That’s kind of the highlight of the evening,” Voigt said.
The students are the school’s best ambassadors, she said. People came up to her after dinner, and “over and over they were saying, ‘you have great kids,” Voigt said.
“James and Rochelle Getzinger head up this event for us and they have an incredible team that helps. They have taken a great event and have turned it into an exceptional event, something people look forward to every year. So much so, people have already purchased tables for next year,” Voigt wrote.
“The majority of the support at this event is from our Moses Lake community. The majority of the tickets sold are corporate tickets.” Michael’s on the Lake provides the prime rib and side dishes; the crab comes from a west side company, she said.
After the auction, organizers held a separate fundraiser for the project to build a gym on the MLCA campus on Nelson Road. Total project cost for the gym is $1.125 million. The gym will be about 11,380 square feet. The building will have bleacher seating for about 500 people, locker rooms and a concession stand. It would be the first gym on the MLCA campus.
Christian academy officials won’t break ground until they have at least $500,000, and there’s still some money to be raised, Voigt said.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].
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