Extended Learning Week
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 6 months, 2 weeks AGO
From left: Moses Lake Christian Academy students Josey Sinchuk, Jamie Fisher, Amelia Shopbell and Kimberly Monforton wait for the doors to open at the Moses Lake Food Bank Tuesday. The students were helping out as part of Extended Learning Week.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Moses Lake Christian Academy junior Zane Swinger, left, and senior Vanya Bohganov paint a fence at GPS Story Barn Ministries in Moses Lake Tuesday.
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. | April 2, 2026 3:20 AM
MOSES LAKE — The high school students at Moses Lake Christian Academy took time off this week from classroom studies for some hands-on, real-world learning volunteering in the community.
“We’re (doing) anything that they need help with, whether it’s painting or raking or stacking metal,” said MLCA junior James Journey, as he painted a fence at GPS Story Barn Ministries in Moses Lake. “Anything they need us to do, pretty much.”
The week before spring break is traditionally Extended Learning Week for MLCA high school students, and this year they were pitching in at the Moses Lake Food Bank, the Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation, U-Rock Ranch and other locations around the area where a little free labor could come in handy.
“Yesterday we went to the Cancer Foundation and we wiped down some windows and picked up some weeds,” said freshman Logan Stevens. “And we went to U-Rock Ranch and got all the dead plants from pots and poured bark over areas where (they) wanted bark to make it look better.”
GPS Story Barn, located in the McConihe Flats neighborhood northwest of town, operates day camps and survival camps in the summer, said Starlene McDaniel, who operates the place with her husband Gene. They were preparing Tuesday to host a sunrise service on Easter Sunday, she said.
“My husband’s health has not been good, so that’s (a) reason that word has got out that we need help getting things done,” she said.
Another contingent of MLCA students was assisting at the Moses Lake Food Bank, bagging up onions and bell peppers and helping with distribution when the doors opened at 11 a.m. The help was welcome, said staffer Robert Hipolito, because his supply of hands is variable.
“We have people who work here; we have volunteers and then we have people doing (court-ordered) community service,” Hipolito said. “And sometimes I don’t have anybody doing community service and it’s only a couple of us who are trying to get all the carts filled up.”
The students were divided into groups of 8-10, freshmen through seniors, and they rotated day by day through the week. This has been going on for about 20 years, said teacher Hannah Pease, who was supervising the students at the food bank.
“I think it has made some of them a little more grateful for what they have,” Pease said. “It’s been helping them be mindful of food, too, like putting things carefully down and paying attention to if things are good quality for other people, because that’s really important.”
Senior SanTahna Ferguson said volunteer work was a learning experience.
“I feel like what we’re doing is taking the load off people who work so hard to make stuff like this happen, and to see the behind-the-scenes of it,” Ferguson said. “It kind of opens your eyes, especially as kids who go to a private school who don’t have to worry about if they’ll get dinner tonight. It’s opened our eyes as students who have a little more than other people and it’s brought us (to where) we’re more understanding of the situations that other people are in.”
Moses Lake Christian Academy junior Zane Swinger, left, and senior Vanya Bohganov paint a fence at GPS Story Barn Ministries in Moses Lake Tuesday.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.”