Brookdale Hearthstone builds 20-foot sundae
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years AGO
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | July 10, 2023 1:30 AM
MOSES LAKE — The residents and staff at Brookdale Hearthstone got to take part in a sweet, if somewhat obscure, tradition Friday, celebrating National Strawberry Sundae Day on a big scale.
“We decided what better way to celebrate than to have a 20-foot strawberry sundae,” said Kar Vanerstrom, sales manager at Brookdale Hearthstone. “So that’s what we’re building.”
It would have been difficult to imagine a better day for the celebration, with the mercury rising almost to three digits and fresh strawberries in season. Brookdale Hearthstone staff set up a long table with a row of 32 small paper bowls and filled them with ice cream and, in most of them, strawberries.
“We’re gonna leave the middle ones just in case someone doesn’t want strawberries, so they can add something else,” Vanerstrom said.
Vanerstom and the Brookdale Hearthstone team then ran a couple of lines of whipped cream down the row, tying all the bowls together into a single unit, and added sprinkles and maraschino cherries.
“Everybody’s excited for these sundaes,” said Activity Director Aleecia Robledo. “Who doesn’t love ice cream?”
“If we’re 17, do we get two?” asked resident Dave Roberts, who didn’t give his age but appeared to be a bit beyond that. He had seconds anyway.
The origins of National Strawberry Sundae Day are obscure, but ice cream sundaes themselves date back to the 19th century, according to the Dairy Alliance, a dairy industry organization in the southeastern U.S., and may have been created as a way to circumvent laws prohibiting the sale of ice cream sodas on Sundays. The sundae extravaganza at Brookdale Hearthstone involved about a gallon and a half of ice cream and four pounds of strawberries, Vanerstrom said.
“The next one that we're going to be doing is, we're going to try a 30-foot hot dog,” Vanerstrom said. “Because I have a hot dog outfit that I wear.”
The hot dog event will be at the end of the month, she added.
In all, 20 residents came into the activity room and enjoyed the fruity dessert, according to Vanerstrom, although even with the air conditioning it was hard to keep the ice cream from melting.
“We should have supplied straws there towards the end,” she wrote in an email after the event. “But it was a great way to get residents up, talking and moving. And that was the goal.”
Joel Martin may be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.
MORE STORIES
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN

Perfect blooms
Tips for entering flowers at the fair
MOSES LAKE — You’ve worked all year to make your flower garden a thing of beauty. What better way to show it off than to enter them in the fair? The Grant County Fair has divisions and classes for every kind of flower or flower arrangement under the sun. Valerie Parrott, president of the Columbia Basin Garden Club and a judge in the fair’s horticulture barn, has tips for making your flowers look the best they can. “Flowers are judged on how close they are to perfection,” Parrott said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re the smallest flower or the largest flower. It only matters how close to perfect the bloom is.” With that in mind, Parrott said, timing is crucial. Exhibits are dropped off Monday morning of fair week, which this year is Aug. 11, and judging begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday. That means the flower you’re entering needs to be perfect right then.

Civil Air Patrol cadets take to the skies over Ephrata
EPHRATA — There couldn’t have been a better climate to teach teenagers to fly in. “We’ve had really good weather,” said Civil Air Patrol Lt. Col. Kathy Maxwell. “Usually by now we’ve had a smoke day or a windy day, or an overcast day.” The CAP cadets are wrapping up the second week of this year’s Desert Eagle National Flight Academy, held every year at Camp Boucher at the Port of Ephrata. Nineteen cadets from around the country, plus one from Japan, came to Ephrata to learn the basics of flying: airplane systems, pre- and post-flight procedures, navigation. In between they’re flying around the Ephrata Airport, first with instructors, then finally solo. The skies between Ephrata and Moses Lake are pretty mellow for flying, but that doesn’t mean there will be no surprises, cadets said.

‘Everyone Has a Why’
Campaign seeks to bring opioid addiction out of the shadows
MOSES LAKE — The reasons for addiction are many, but everybody has one. That’s the point of a campaign by the Grant County Health District to highlight opioid addiction and overdoses. It’s part of a two-phase campaign to explain some of the reasons behind addiction, and encourage people to seek help. “It can be loss, or pain, or struggle, but everyone has a reason that they may start using substances,” said Lexi Smith, communications coordinator for the Grant County Health District. “But on the flip side of that, everyone has a reason that they don’t, or that they choose to help someone who does.” The tagline for the Everybody Has a Why campaign is “Make addiction a conversation, not a secret,” and removing the shame of seeking help is a primary aim.