Crestview school raises funds with jog-a-thon
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 hour, 44 minutes AGO
Crestview Christian School students show the T-shirts listing the names of sponsors from the annual jog-a-thon fundraiser Friday.
COURTESY PHOTO/CRESTVIEW CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
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 23, 2026 3:15 AM
MOSES LAKE — The students at Crestview Christian School in Moses Lake had a little outside support for their annual jog-a-thon fundraiser Friday.
“We had some of the neighbors come over, and they walked a couple of laps with the kids,” said school secretary Kim Dieter. “It was a gorgeous day, perfect for outside activity. Not too hot, not too cold.”
About 30 people, including students from both Crestview and Brite Beginnings Preschool as well as some teachers and other adults, ran, jogged or walked around a makeshift track behind the school. Grownup volunteers tallied the laps and kept the walkers hydrated. A neighborhood puppy named River even trotted over and walked a few laps with the children.
Students raised money for the jog-a-thon by soliciting sponsorships to contribute a certain amount per lap they completed, and businesses could sponsor the event as well. A contribution of $150 or more got the donor’s name on a commemorative T-shirt.
Students completed a total of 912 laps, Dieter wrote an email to the Columbia Basin Herald.
The amount of money raised wasn’t available at press time. Dieter said. The goal was $18,000, the same as last year’s jog-a-thon, and that event raised more than $20,000. Every year the money goes toward improvements to the school. This year’s funds will purchase some new furniture for the entry foyer of the school and picnic tables for the playground area.
Crestview and Brite Beginnings are both affiliated with the Moses Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church, and until October 2024, the church had been meeting in the school building. At that time, the church building, which had been under construction for more than 15 years, was complete enough to move into. This meant some of the school’s furniture went to the new church.
“It left us with some bedraggled seconds,” Dieter said. “So we want to spruce (the foyer) up a bit and make it more appealing.”
The picnic tables are well-worn from Basin weather, and the school hopes to replace them with coated, heavy-duty ones.
“(The existing ones) have been out in the sun for several seasons now and are breaking down.” Dieter said. “We want something a little sturdier and safer than the jagged edges of the plastic falling apart.”
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Crestview school raises funds with jog-a-thon
MOSES LAKE — The students at Crestview Christian School in Moses Lake had a little outside support for their annual jog-a-thon fundraiser Friday. “We had some of the neighbors come over, and they walked a couple of laps with the kids,” said school secretary Kim Dieter. “It was a gorgeous day, perfect for outside activity. Not too hot, not too cold.” About 30 people, including students from both Crestview and Brite Beginnings Preschool as well as some teachers and other adults, ran, jogged or walked around a makeshift track behind the school. Grownup volunteers tallied the laps and kept the walkers hydrated. A neighborhood puppy named River even trotted over and walked a few laps with the children.
Student with Basin roots heads to West Point
MOSES LAKE — The U.S. Military Academy West Point has a reputation as a tough school to get into and an even tougher one to get through. But one young woman with ties to the Columbia Basin is headed there next year. “It was a long process,” said Élodie Bennett of Anchorage, Alaska. “I definitely had to push myself, but it was very much worth it.” Élodie, a senior at South Anchorage High School, is the daughter of David Bennett, a 1982 graduate of Moses Lake High School, and the granddaughter of Tom Bennett, a longtime instructor at Big Bend Community College who still lives in Moses Lake. She’ll follow in her dad’s footsteps next year as she enters West Point.
Youth baseball and softball season kicks off with parade
MOSES LAKE — The youth baseball and softball season kicked off in Moses Lake with the traditional Youth Day Parade downtown Saturday morning. The parking lots at McCosh Park and the Surf ‘n Slide Water Park were filled with pickup trucks and trailers, each decorated in team colors and bearing a team of eager young players from the Moses Lake Youth Baseball Association and the Columbia Basin Girls Softball Association. The parade wound down Fourth Avenue to Division Street, jogged north to head back up Third Avenue to Ivy Avenue, then returned to where they started. “The object is just to get as many kids playing as possible,” said MLYBA vice president Leo Cortez.