Bulls, broncs and biscuits
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years AGO
Volunteers man the chow line at the Cowboy Breakfast last year. This year’s breakfast is Friday.
FILE PHOTO
A roping contestant tries her best to take down that steer at last year’s Cowboy Breakfast. This year’s breakfast is Friday.
Volunteers man the chow line at the Cowboy Breakfast last year. This year’s breakfast is Friday.
Running the barrels is a rodeo event in the Pee Wee Stampede at the Cowboy Breakfast.
A family of mountain goats stand atop Mount Aeneas in the Jewel Basin on Saturday, July 27. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
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. | August 7, 2024 1:20 AM
MOSES LAKE — The Grant County Fair is a big deal in Grant County, and it’s only fitting that it should have a proper introduction. That happens the Friday before the fair, which this year is Aug. 9. The breakfast, hosted by the Kiwanis Club of Moses Lake, will be from 7 to 10 a.m. at Sinkiuse Square next to the post office.
“A lot of people who work in Moses Lake come and eat before they go to work,” said Dayna Dent, who’s coordinated the breakfast for the Kiwanis for the last three years.
The Cowboy Breakfast has been going on for 25-30 years, according to Kiwanian James Shank. The menu will include biscuits and gravy, sausage, scrambled eggs, coffee and juice for $17 per plate.
Up until a few years ago, Michael’s on the Lake supplied the ingredients for a pancake breakfast and Kiwanis members cooked the food on the spot, Shank said. When Michael’s decided it didn’t want to continue, the Kiwanis Club cooked at the senior center for a couple of years, Shank said, and this year Top Gun Concessions & Catering will bring the food to the park.
Top Gun found biscuits and gravy much easier logistically than pancakes, Dent said.
“Do you have any idea how heavy those (pancake) grills are?” she said.
Serving and cleanup will be provided by volunteers from Kiwanis, Dent said, assisted by some young people from Key Club, the Kiwanis’ high school branch. Dale Roth Productions will supply the music and announcements. Members of the Moses Lake Roundup Rodeo Association will set up the panels and banners the night before and the tables in the morning.
While attendees are enjoying the breakfast, they can also watch the Pee Wee Stampede stick horse rodeo, which lets kids 9 years old and younger compete in roping a stationary steer head, staying on stick horse bucking broncs, racing those same wooden steeds around barrels and competing for the prestigious title of Little Miss Moses Lake Roundup.
“People love (the stick horse rodeo),” Dent said. “It gets a lot of families involved too.”
In theory, the Cowboy Breakfast is a fundraiser, Shank said, but with the rising cost of food in the post-COVID-19 era, it breaks even. It’s mostly a fun community event now, he said.
The Kiwanis Club’s main fundraiser is a booth at the Agri-Service Demo Derby from Aug. 13-14 and the Moses Lake Roundup Rodeo from Aug. 16-17. There, they offer hot dogs, German sausages and nachos, all of which can be smothered in chili and cheese, popcorn and lemonade. That brings in about $15,000 a year, Shank said.
All the monies raised go back out into the community, Dent said, for projects by organizations like the Boys and Girls Club or Care Moses Lake.
The Cowboy Breakfast brings about 200-300 people to Sinkiuse Square most years, Shank said, which is a great way to get the community together.
“One of the reasons I love living in Moses Lake and raised my family here was because of the sense of community that we have, and opportunities like this to really connect with the community, put aside politics and come out and enjoy each other,” Shank said.
A roping contestant tries her best to take down that steer at last year’s Cowboy Breakfast. This year’s breakfast is Friday.
Running the barrels is a rodeo event in the Pee Wee Stampede at the Cowboy Breakfast.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.