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JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 9 months, 3 weeks 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
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.”