GALLERY: Celebration of holiday season in Mattawa
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year AGO
Wahluke School District administrators attempt to eat a doughnut without any hands during the winter festival in Mattawa.
COURTESY PHOTO/WAHLUKE SCHOOL DISTRICT
Mattawa Winter Fest participants cluster around an activity table.
The ornament table was busy at the Mattawa Winter Festival.
Families work on crafts at the winter festival in Mattawa.
Children had the chance to test their pullup skills.
Children try their hands – well, actually they can’t use their hands – in the doughnut eating contest.
Santa and his missus showed up for pictures at the Mattawa Winter Festival.
Wahluke High School FFA chapter members operate the hamburger booth at the winter festival in Mattawa.
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. | December 26, 2024 2:45 AM
MATTAWA — Children and parents filled the Wahluke High School cafeteria to make ornaments and color pictures, take pictures with Santa, try to eat a doughnut without any hands and play other games at the annual Winter Festival in Mattawa.
Wahluke Superintendent Andy Harlow said it was a joint venture between WSD and Mattawa city officials. Harlow said it’s something fun for the community during the holiday season.
“How do we, at a very low cost, bring people together?” he said.
It’s the second year for the winter festival at WHS; previously it was in Hund Memorial Park for a couple of years. But it’s cold in the park in December, so organizers moved it to the high school. And it was successful — Harlow estimated it drew about 500 people.
“People walked away feeling really good,” he said.
Mattawa Winter Fest participants cluster around an activity table.
The ornament table was busy at the Mattawa Winter Festival.
Families work on crafts at the winter festival in Mattawa.
Children had the chance to test their pullup skills.
Children try their hands – well, actually they can’t use their hands – in the doughnut eating contest.
Santa and his missus showed up for pictures at the Mattawa Winter Festival.
Wahluke High School FFA chapter members operate the hamburger booth at the winter festival in Mattawa.ARTICLES BY CHERYL SCHWEIZER
Outgoing Othello mayor says time in office taught some lessons
OTHELLO — Outgoing Othello Mayor Shawn Logan said his time in office has reinforced some things he already knew and taught him some new lessons, too. “Othello has nice people in it. Really good people. And we really are a family-friendly, youth sports, agriculture, largely Hispanic community,” he said. “I got to know my community better. And the other thing that I was learning is that this town has a lot of kids in it.” Logan was defeated earlier this year in a bid for his fourth term as mayor. He was first elected to the mayor’s job in 2014. Logan said his motivation was to help Othello grow and improve, and that continued to be his focus. The question, he said, was how to do it.
Stevens Pass set to partially reopen
STEVENS PASS — A section of US Highway 2 will reopen Monday for daytime use, with a pilot car, but other sections of the road remain closed. A detour will be available for people trying to access the east section of Highway 2 from Leavenworth.
Winter temperatures to arrive and stay for a while
MOSES LAKE — All those mild days in November and December? All those 50-degree afternoons? Well, as people may have noticed, that late fall weather is going away, at least for the time being. Joey Clevenger, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Spokane, said weather patterns are starting to push cold air into Eastern and Central Washington.