PALS forever
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years, 6 months AGO
From left: Erick Ocampo, Danny Thurman, Adam "Nick" Burns (partially hidden) and R.J. Melendrez enjoy music and dancing at the PALS Club prom Friday.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Yasmin Luna Chavez, left, and a fellow PALS Club member take a selfie at the PALS Prom Friday, flanked by Bryan Luna Chavez, left, and Ethan Farmer.
Gunner Hendricks, left, and Josline Dominguez Gomez were named the PALS Prom king and queen Friday.
PALS Club members Lydemai Diaz, left, and Juanpablo Godinez cover door duty at the PALS Prom Friday evening.
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. | March 27, 2024 1:35 AM
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake High School PALS Prom Friday night brought glamor, joy and some impressive dance moves to the school commons.
“This was probably one of the best proms yet for attendance and community support,” said Jodi Truman, the PALS Club advisor.
Truman is also one of the teachers in the Project Future program, which is what used to be called Life Skills. The PALS Club — PALS stands for “Peer Assistance Leadership Service” — brings together students with and without developmental disabilities at MLHS, according to its official description. The purpose is to enable students with disabilities to find understanding and camaraderie and students without disabilities to learn more about people who are different from them. The special education teachers at MLHS started the club about 12 years ago, Truman said, and the prom has been happening for at least seven.
Attendance at the prom was anywhere from 60 to 75 PALS members, she said, as well as some parents and other students who came to see what was happening. A DJ paid for by parents John and Denise Moncada spun tunes while students busted moves inside, and local real estate agent Blake Rollins arranged for a corn dog truck to keep up hard-dancing teenagers’ strength. The other costs of the prom were paid for with funds the club raises with enterprises like running the school’s snack shack and vending machines, Truman said.
Outside the prom, Jennifer Milne was taking a photo of her son James Smith, who was clearly eager to get inside and dance. He’s benefited a lot from his experience with the PALS club, she said.
“He has an intellectual delay and it really helps him to form connections with his peers,” Milne said. “He really struggles at that. It helps him get out in the community and do things that he would normally have a harder time doing.”
The door was staffed by PALS Club members Juanpablo Godinez and Lydemai Diaz, who said they enjoy the interaction they get with their classmates with disabilities.
“We’re peer mentors, so we have a class with them,” Godinez said. “We have a class where we help them out in their classrooms, or we help them out with their PE and stuff.”
The prom isn’t the only thing the PALS Club does, Truman said. There’s also a trip to a pumpkin patch in the fall, a Christmas bowling party and a taco party where they bring in a food truck for lunch and play yard games.
“This year we’re gonna do Cascade Park so they can roll down the grass hill. That was a big request,” Truman said. “The beauty about the PALS Club is … that they are able to connect to that fun and that pure joy that oftentimes we forget about when we get really busy in this life. And that's one of the blessings I love about PALS.”
Joel Martin may be reached via email at [email protected].
Yasmin Luna Chavez, left, and a fellow PALS Club member take a selfie at the PALS Prom Friday, flanked by Bryan Luna Chavez, left, and Ethan Farmer.
Gunner Hendricks, left, and Josline Dominguez Gomez were named the PALS Prom king and queen Friday.
PALS Club members Lydemai Diaz, left, and Juanpablo Godinez cover door duty at the PALS Prom Friday evening.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.”