MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake High School Pals Club gathered together outside of Crumble Cookie on Thursday to raise money for the unified sports programs before the start of the basketball season in January. Mavs assistant coach for unified sports Sarah White said the holiday-themed fundraiser was a success on all accounts. 

“It was a lot of fun,” said White. “We had, I think, four of our unified players show up and a good amount of the community and everyone stopped by.” 

During this fundraiser, the Pals Club offered free hot cocoa to those coming through and tried to keep with the theme of the season as the night went on. The coach said the most important part about the fundraiser was that it allowed the unified players to get out and have fun and socialize with the community. 

“Just creating those opportunities for them, it’s just really fun to see outside of school in that kind of platform,” she said.  

One of the players, Josline Dominguez-Gomez, was recognized by the coach as she has not missed a single booster fundraiser that the Pal’s Club has hosted. 

“I am so proud of her hard work and dedication to help as a unified player,” said White. 

The club was selling cookies to raise money for the unified team to have matching warm-up uniforms. Getting the warm-ups for the athletes has been a longtime goal for White as she said it was important to her that they all have something to wear that brings them together as a team. 

The unified team will have more Crumbl and other fundraising events in the future. White said these events are not only good for raising money for the students, but also help teach them good principles of working hard both on and off the court.  

“I want them to have everything our general education students have because we’re all the same,” she said. “I don't want anything different and so whether I’m out there in the cold or anything else, I’m going to try and make it work. These Crumbl events and everything that we do it’s just one step closer to that.” 

White said something that was cool from this fundraiser was the number of people who she used to go to school with that showed up with their kids to support unified sports and showed how good the community is at coming together to support one another. 

“It’s moments like that that remind you why we do what we do,” she said.  

With the start of the unified basketball season approaching in a few weeks, White said she hopes that support continues as the athletes play at their two home games this season. The athletes have been working hard both with fundraisers and practice to get ready for the season. 

She said the whole team is excited for the start of the season and is ready to get going on the court. 

“It’s just exciting and everyone was all happy and talking about it all day and you hear it in the hallway," said White. “We’ve got a whole bunch of new players this year, so that’s exciting.” 

The start of the unified basketball season will be at home Jan. 6 at 4 p.m., where the Mavs will take on Wenatchee. 

    Mavs unified athletes Josline Dominguez-Gomez, Eric Ocampo and DJ Parker are joined by the Grinch during the fundraiser on Thursday. Mavs Assistant Coach Sarah White said the fundraising events are a good opportunity for the team to get out and interact with the community.
  

    Mavs Assistant Coach Sarah White’s daughter and two friends hold up signs to help support the unified sports fundraiser. White said she was pleasantly surprised by the number of people she went to high school with who came with their own children to come support the Pals Club.