CAA pulls weeds, cleans up at North Elementary
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years AGO
Volunteers from Community Athletics and Activities pull weeds at North Elementary School in Moses Lake Monday. The organization is primarily aimed at raising funds to maintain extracurricular activities in the Moses Lake School District, but member Brooke Decubber said the greater mission is to improve the district and the community.
COURTESY PHOTO/BROOKE DECUBBER
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 29, 2024 1:25 AM
MOSES LAKE — The campus of North Elementary School in Moses Lake looks a little nicer through the efforts of a group of students and community volunteers.
“We got a message on Saturday from ... a substitute at North, (who) was going out to go and set up some things out there and said that she had a need for some landscaping,” said Brooke Decubber, a member of Community Athletics & Activities. “There were several large, tall weeds, and the playground had weeds and goatheads out there that hadn't been tended to this summer.”
Monday morning, a group of about 30 students and a dozen adults representing CAA went out to North Elementary and pulled up a large pile of weeds, DeCubber said. They haven’t been requested for other schools, but DeCubber said they’d be willing to do the same at other schools.
“This was just kind of our first little outreach that we had got, so we showed up,” Decubber said. “We’d definitely be open to helping out more.”
CAA was formed in June as a response to shortfalls in Moses Lake School District’s funding that threatened the athletic and extracurricular programs at Moses Lake schools. Most of the organization’s efforts have gone toward raising funds to pay for school programs, but Decubber said the mission extends beyond that.
“Part of the reason we want extracurriculars is to make this community better,” she said. "We want to see (all aspects of the schools) improve. And by giving back to some of these elementary schools, because we know that there's a shortfall right now, I think it's definitely going to impact everyone from low to high within the school district.”
More information and opportunities to contribute can be found at caabooster.com.
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
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Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
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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.