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JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 8 months, 1 week AGO
Hayden Homes team members unload boxes of non-perishable food for Second Harvest in Spokane. Second Harvest supplies many of the food banks in Grant and Adams counties, and brings mobile food distributions to outlying communities in the Basin.
COURTESY PHOTO/HAYDEN HOMES
Hayden Homes team members sort more than 2,000 pounds of grapes for Second Harvest in Spokane.
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. | December 26, 2025 1:05 AM
MOSES LAKE — Hayden Homes, and its partner company Simplicity by Hayden Homes, went a step beyond their mission of affordable housing this month, with donations to organizations across the Northwest fighting food insecurity.
Especially at this time of the year, it becomes more in the spotlight to think about families out there that are struggling,” said Rees Wasney, regional vice president of Hayden Homes in the Tri-Cities. “It’s a tough time.”
Hayden Homes chipped in $66,000 to 15 nonprofits across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Western Montana, according to an announcement from the company. In addition, the Hayden team amassed more than 2,500 pounds of non-perishable food for local food banks.
The drive started out as a battle for bragging rights, Wasney said.
“Our marketing department and our customer experience department were meeting, uh, people from all four of the regions discussing what they wanted to do for a year-end charitable idea,” Wasney said. “And when they all got together, they all realized that they were all focusing on the same thing: supporting the local food banks. We put a competition together and it just spread across the whole company, and off we went.”
In Washington, Hayden Homes gave more than $32,500 to local organizations including Blue Mountain Action Council, Mid-Columbia Meals on Wheels for Seniors, Palouse Food Bank and Second Harvest Inland Northwest Food Banks, according to the announcement. The funds will support a variety of initiatives to ensure community members can feed their families not just during the holidays but throughout the year.
Team members also gathered 611 pounds of canned and dry foods, which were donated to Second Harvest’s Inland Northwest location serving the Spokane Valley, according to the announcement. Hayden Homes and its partner organizations also donated $9,000 to Second Harvest, which will enable the organization to purchase more than 20,000 pounds of food.
“We are committed to setting the table for our neighbors in need,” Jason Clark, CEO of Second Harvest Inland Northwest, wrote in the announcement. “When local homebuilders like Hayden Homes and Simplicity invest in the organizations working to alleviate hunger, we can better and more effectively nourish our community from all angles, from addressing immediate needs to long-term food security.”
Hayden Homes, based in Redmond, Oregon, has built developments in Moses Lake and Othello, as well as the Tri-Cities, Spokane, Walla Walla and Yakima Valley areas of Washington. The company focuses on affordable housing and believes in giving back to those communities where it sells homes, Wasney said, something that isn’t universal in the business world.
“I’ve been with the company for 26 years and I didn’t know a whole bunch about giving and having it in your fabric like it is at this company,” Wasney said. “That exposure gets a little addictive. It’s so cool to listen to the stories across our company … people are taking it upon themselves to go do it. Without that exposure, life moves really quick.”
Hayden Homes team members sort more than 2,000 pounds of grapes for Second Harvest in Spokane.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
QUINCY — Quincy’s National Night Out was more compact this year, which worked out well, said QPD Sgt. Joe Westby, who’s in charge of event planning for the Quincy Police Department. “National Night Out is a big event, and the fact that we’re able to shrink it up is like a breath of fresh air,” Westby said. “If you're always doing the same thing, it's kind of nice to switch things up and see how it works.” National Night Out took place Thursday on the block of C Street next to the police station, a shift from previous years when it was held at Lauzier Park. The smaller space meant fewer emergency vehicles for children to explore, but it also meant less walking for attendees. Grant County Fire District 5 brought a fire truck, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office had a patrol boat. Renew, the Grant County behavioral health agency, had a booth and so did Quincy Partnership for Youth. Veterans Operation Creation sang the national anthem, and the Quincy Animal Shelter brought kittens that piled over each other making friends with passersby. As before, the QPD served grilled hot dogs.
Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
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.