Moses Lake celebrates America with music, fireworks
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years, 3 months AGO
Members of the 133d Washington National Guard Band get ready for the band’s performance at Red, White and Boom Wednesday at McCosh Park.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Sgt. Niko Woodin of the 133d Washington National Guard Band blows a solo tuba riff while warming up for the band’s performance at Moses Lake’s Red, White and Boom celebration Wednesday.
Eight-year-old Sinead Estrada, left, and her brother Brandon Estrada, 10, watch the stage expectantly before the concert at Red, White and Boom Wednesday.
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 8, 2024 3:15 AM
MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake’s Red, White and Boom! Celebration on Wednesday drew out a respectable crowd, said Moses Lake Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Director Doug Coutts.
“I would say we were in the hundreds, probably close to the higher hundreds, not quite 1,000,” Coutts said. “There was a really good turnout.”
The celebration wasn’t the all-day or multi-day affair with which Moses Lake has marked the Fourth of July in years past; all the action took place in one evening. But there were food and craft vendors, the fireworks show and a concert by the 133d Washington National Guard Band.
“They did an incredible job,” Coutts said. “It was a three-hour band performance followed by 20 minutes of fireworks. And extremely patriotic. I thought it was amazing to have a military band there for the Fourth festivities.”
The 40-member 133d Washington National Guard Band is based at Camp Murray, adjacent to Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Tacoma, according to its commander, WO1 Matthew Wenman. The performance featured a range of styles from traditional jazz to rock. The band serves as sort of an outreach to the wider world, said Sgt. Niko Woodin, who played tuba in Wednesday’s performance.
“With the army, there's typically a band at every installation,” Woodin said. “And they often function as a support role. The biggest factor for us that comes from our big brass, our bosses, is recruitment sustainment. Typically, we're the first people that civilians will see that are in uniform. So our mission is hearts and minds.”
Woodin has been playing the tuba for about 10 years, he said. And he’s in familiar company in the National Guard band.
“Sgt. Schmidt, our bari sax player, she was actually my middle school band director back in the day,” Woodin said. “And our former commander (before Wenman) was my high school band director.”
Thirteen-year-old Sherlyn Estrada, who was staking out a space before the performance with her younger siblings, was looking forward to the concert.
“I also have an instrument of my own,” she said. “I play the clarinet.”
Holding the event on July 3 instead of the actual holiday put some people off, Coutts said, but it was necessary.
“We're limited by what availability our fireworks company has, because we hire a company to shoot them off,” he said. “And they are booked solid on the Fourth. It’s not something that we can control.”
In the past, the celebration has typically been held the Saturday before the Fourth, Coutts said, but this year that would have put the celebration in June, which the city felt was too early.
“I look at (the July 3 date) kind of as a kickoff to everybody's Independence Day celebrations,” Coutts said. “We couldn't get the fireworks company on the fourth, so we got it on the third to get everybody kick-started. And if you can legally discharge fireworks at your house, you go right ahead and do that on the Fourth and good on you – enjoy your Independence Day.”
Joel Martin may be reached via email at [email protected].
Sgt. Niko Woodin of the 133d Washington National Guard Band blows a solo tuba riff while warming up for the band’s performance at Moses Lake’s Red, White and Boom celebration Wednesday.
Eight-year-old Sinead Estrada, left, and her brother Brandon Estrada, 10, watch the stage expectantly before the concert at Red, White and Boom Wednesday.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Endless battle
Noxious Weed Control Board works to keep invasive plants under control
MOSES LAKE — Some of the nastiest plants in Grant County were the topic of a class led by Jay Johnson, a consultant with the Grant County Noxious Weed Control Board, Tuesday. The Noxious Weed Control Board, as its name would suggest, is tasked with keeping weeds under control in Grant County. That’s not a small job; the board’s website lists 129 species of noxious weeds that are found around Grant County. A noxious weed is defined as an invasive, non-native plant that threatens agricultural crops, local ecosystems or fish and wildlife habitat, according to the Noxious Weed Control Board. Washington state law requires that these weeds be identified and their spread kept to a minimum, if not completely eradicated. “We’re one of those agencies a lot of people don’t really understand,” Johnson said. “We’re a county office and … our funding is tax-based assessment. When you get your tax bill and you look down at all the expenses that you pay for, there we are.”
BASIN EVENTS: Oct. 16-24
COLUMBIA BASIN — Whether you feel like shopping, crafting, learning or seeing a show, there’s something happening for you this week in the Basin. Oct. 16 ‘My Family (Mi Familia)’ screening Spanning three generations, “My Family (Mi Familia)” is a heartfelt drama that follows the Sánchez family as they build their lives in East Los Angeles. Through love, hardship, triumph, and sacrifice, the film explores the immigrant experience, the strength of family bonds, and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Lowrider show and taco truck before the screening. Sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts, EDUBS C/S and the Moses Lake Creative District. $12 per person. Doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m. at the Moses Lake Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St. Tickets and info: www.cba-arts.org.
Moses Lake author encourages women to look beyond church culture norms
MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake author’s book, “A Christian Woman Striving to Live Her Faith in a Man-Controlled World,” takes aim at the role to which many churches relegate the female half of their congregations. “It’s to encourage women in the faith,” Linda Curran said. “A lot of churches say, ‘Teach Sunday school, do this, do that, but don’t (evangelize.)’" In her book, Curran recounts a time when she moved to a new community and joined a church there. She was surprised to learn that, as a new female member, she had been automatically assigned church cleaning duties. When she questioned it, she wrote, she was met with condescension and her objections were brushed aside. In other churches, she said, women who were capable of teaching were relegated to “women’s ministry.”