Well stocked
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years AGO
Real estate agent Anna Lucero, of CENTURY 21 Alsted Real Estate in Moses Lake, shows some of the supplies she purchased for four schools in the Columbia Basin.
Courtesy photo/Anna Lucero
From left: Tami Canfield, Kevin Burgess, Annie Fisher and Danielle Root with some of the supplies collected for the school supply drive by the Moses Lake-Othello Association of Realtors.
Real estate agent Anna Lucero’s Krispy Kreme sale outside the CENTURY 21 Alsted Real Estate office in Moses Lake, as well as another sale at K-9 Kuts in Ephrata, brought in $800 in two days. The money went for school supplies in Moses Lake, Wilson Creek, Ephrata and Quincy.
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. | September 1, 2023 1:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — Some students in the Basin will be a little better equipped this year thanks to local real estate professionals.
“I got a wild idea in May to do a Grant County-wide school supply drive,” Anna Lucero, an agent with CENTURY 21 Alsted Real Estate in Moses Lake. “I chose to do all of Grant County because I personally grew up in Ephrata and that school is still near to my heart. My boys go to Moses Lake, my daughter attends Wilson Creek and my family is originally from the Quincy area.”
Lucero started out in early August, publicizing her drive originally through social media and word of mouth. The response to that wasn’t great, she said, so she decided to hit potential donors where it counts: in the taste buds.
“I moved to plan B,” she said. “I ordered 100 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts, drove to Spokane, picked them up and scheduled two days to sell them, one in Moses Lake and one in Ephrata. I sold out all of them and raised, with tips, $800.”
Lucero used $250 of that for art supplies for Wilson Creek schools, she said and split the supplies bought with the other $550 between Moses Lake, Ephrata and Quincy. Other community members contributed supplies as well, which were delivered along with Lucero’s.
Meanwhile, other local real estate professionals were holding their own drive.
“Members of the Moses Lake-Othello Association of Realtors collected hundreds of school supplies during August and delivered large boxes filled with them to the Moses Lake School District today,” Tami Canfield, 2023 president, wrote in a press release to the Columbia Basin Herald Wednesday. “The purpose is to help children in need in our community and make a positive impact on their education.”
Anne Fisher, branch manager at Guild Mortgage in Moses Lake, organized the school supply drive and presented a list of items that teachers suggested area students were most in need of, according to the Realtors Association release, including paper, folders, binders, crayons, markers, colored pencils, pencils, erasers, glue sticks, earbuds, headphones, water bottles and backpacks.
It’s not the only community service the Moses Lake-Othello Realtors Association performs every year.
“Over the years, the 145-member Realtor association has supported the local community in many ways: through staffing the Burger Barn at the (Moses Lake Roundup) Rodeo during annual fair week in August to raise funds to award high school and Big Bend scholarships each year, supporting activities for Habitat for Humanity and the Boys and Girls Club, collecting food for the food bank, and providing free mask distribution to the public during COVID,” Canfield wrote in the release.
The need is certainly significant. A 2019 study by the National Education Association showed that teachers in Washington forked over an average of $464 apiece every year out of their own pockets for supplies that would ordinarily come from students or the school district. The national average was $459, according to the study, and the highest rate of teacher spending was in California, at $664 per teacher per year.
“We are proud to provide these school supplies to support our students, teachers and local schools,” Canfield wrote.
Joel Martin may be reached via email at [email protected].
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
QUINCY — Quincy’s National Night Out was more compact this year, which worked out well, said QPD Sgt. Joe Westby, who’s in charge of event planning for the Quincy Police Department. “National Night Out is a big event, and the fact that we’re able to shrink it up is like a breath of fresh air,” Westby said. “If you're always doing the same thing, it's kind of nice to switch things up and see how it works.” National Night Out took place Thursday on the block of C Street next to the police station, a shift from previous years when it was held at Lauzier Park. The smaller space meant fewer emergency vehicles for children to explore, but it also meant less walking for attendees. Grant County Fire District 5 brought a fire truck, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office had a patrol boat. Renew, the Grant County behavioral health agency, had a booth and so did Quincy Partnership for Youth. Veterans Operation Creation sang the national anthem, and the Quincy Animal Shelter brought kittens that piled over each other making friends with passersby. As before, the QPD served grilled hot dogs.
Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.