Youth Dynamics to mark 30th anniversary
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 6 months AGO
Volunteers hang the sign on the Youth Dynamics building in downtown Moses Lake in 1996. The youth ministry is celebrating 30 years this week, still in the same location.
COURTESY PHOTO/YOUTH DYNAMICS
Teens listen to a presentation at Youth Dynamics. The center offers games, homework space and a place to socialize, as well as food and support for teenagers.
Comedian Bob Smiley will perform at Youth Dynamics’ 30th anniversary celebration Saturday night.
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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 14, 2026 3:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — Youth Dynamics will hold a three-day party this week to mark 30 years of Christian outreach.
“I was talking to the president of Youth Dynamics, and I (said), ‘I’d really like to do a celebration weekend,’” said Moses Lake Youth Dynamics Director Sean Sallis. “It’s not a fundraiser; we’re not going to have an auctioneer here selling items or anything like that.”
The event will celebrate four pillars of Youth Dynamics’ ministry over the years.
Friday will be Alumni night, and all the students who have come through Youth Dynamics over the last three decades are invited.
“If you were here as a student from 1996 until now, like, we’d love to have you come,” Sallis said. “We’re going to do an ice cream social in the back at the new cafe.”
Saturday is dubbed “Come & See,” a day to celebrate the donors, ministry partners and others in the community who have supported Youth Dynamics over the years. Some former directors of the facility and the president of Youth Dynamics are expected to be there as well, Sallis said, and former students may come and talk about what Youth Dynamics has meant to them.
“We’ve had a lot of kids that come through that probably had some really big hardships, with drugs or whatever, and now they’re in their communities giving back to society,” Sallis said. “We don’t claim to be the ones that fix that and make that happen, but I think Youth Dynamics does play a part in that.”
The event will be a chance to meet some of the volunteers who put the building together when it opened, Sallis said. Some others who didn’t want to speak are on video talking about the process of getting Youth Dynamics off the ground.
“It’s to point people to the impact we’ve made and what we look forward to doing in the future,” Sallis said.
Saturday evening will be the only ticketed event of the weekend, when Christian comedian Bob Smiley performs. Smiley has done three specials for Dry Bar Comedy and toured with musician and comic Tim Hawkins, according to his website.
Sunday will be a legacy gathering honoring current and former staff and volunteers, with Moses Lake Youth Dynamics’ first director Mark Evans, some other former directors and anyone in the community who has been a part of Youth Dynamics’ ministry over the years.
Sallis was a student at Youth Dynamics himself when the center opened in 1996, he said, and since then the organization has touched countless young lives.
“When I was a student, we had, like, 250 kids a week down here,” Sallis said. “We do about 100 a week right now.”
The Moses Lake Youth Dynamics center provides teenagers a place to hang out, play games and socialize, as well as meals and homework space. Youth Dynamics also organizes outdoor adventures for youth and has a scholarship program for those who would otherwise be unable to go. The center is currently in the process of adding Lake City Lights Cafe, which will serve coffee drinks and smoothies.
“We’re just hoping that’ll be a great celebration and that people can see what God’s doing,” Sallis said.
Youth Dynamics 30th anniversary
April 17-19
Alumni night Friday 7 p.m.
Come & See Saturday 1-3 p.m.
Smiley & Sweets Saturday 7 p.m.
Legacy gathering Sunday 1-3 p.m.
106 E. Third Ave.
Moses Lake
509-855-4095
Teens listen to a presentation at Youth Dynamics. The center offers games, homework space and a place to socialize, as well as food and support for teenagers.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
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