New location, big crowd for Cowboy Breakfast
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 weeks, 5 days AGO
RJ McFadden helps his son Griffi rope a plastic steer during the Cowboy Breakfast Friday.
CHERYL SCHWEIZER/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
A bull rider just couldn’t stay on that darn cow at the Pee Wee Stampede, part of the annual Cowboy Breakfast.
A stick horse bronc riding participant was skeptical of the whole enterprise. The children’s games are part of the annual Cowboy Breakfast, which was Friday.
Debbie Doran-Martinez, Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce, presents New Hope Director Kim Hope with more than $1,000 donated at the Cowboy Breakfast Friday.
Pee Wee Stampede announcer Anne Fisher helps one of the contestants through the barrel racing course.
Little Miss Peewee Stampede Queen Layne Parker checks out her sash. The children’s rodeo contest is a tradition at the Cowboy Breakfast.
A Pee Wee Stampede participant gives it her all in the bull riding competition at the Cowboy Breakfast, the traditional kickoff for the Moses Lake Roundup and Grant County Fair.
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | August 17, 2026 3:15 AM
MOSES LAKE — The traditional kickoff for the Grant County Fair and Moses Lake Roundup drew a crowd that filled the back patio at its new location.
The Cowboy Breakfast is a longstanding tradition that dates back decades, with the Elks Lodge hosting breakfast for 2026. Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce Manager Debbie Doran-Martinez said it drew a lot of interest, including so many sponsors that breakfast could be offered free of charge.
“We had lots of volunteers, lots of sponsors,” she said.
The Columbia Basin Foundation covered all costs that weren’t paid by other sponsors in celebration of the foundation’s 30th anniversary, Doran-Martinez said.
Attendees were asked to take the fee that’s usually charged and buy tickets for a benefit raffle sponsored by the Man Up Crusade, an initiative to bring attention to domestic violence, try to stop it, and support DV victims. The Moses Lake Roundup committee partners with New Hope for the raffle and the Man Up campaign. Along with buying tickets, Cowboy Breakfast attendees also donated about $1,050 in cash to New Hope.
“This is going to make me cry, you guys,” said Kim Pope, New Hope director, as Doran-Martinez handed her the cash.
Organizers brought the traditions to the new location, chiefly the Pee Wee Stampede, where children run in stick horse races and ride an inflatable bull. And every real rodeo must have a queen; for 2026 Little Miss Peewee Stampede was three-year-old Layne Parker.
Children competed in stick horse barrel races and rode stick horse bucking broncos and a big, mean, inflatable bull. There were so many contestants that roping the plastic steer had to be postponed until next year.
The bull was so big it was bigger than some of the riders, who got help from 2026 Moses Lake Roundup Queen Kaylee Stump. Pee Wee Stampede announcer Anne Fisher guided some of the barrel racers through the course. Others zoomed around the barrels, with one contestant throwing in a few spins as she ran.
The riders put the stick horses through their paces, although one was skeptical of the whole bronc-riding exercise and not impressed by the adults trying to encourage her.
Doran-Martinez said she was pleased with the attendance.
“I think our numbers are much higher,” she said.
A bull rider just couldn’t stay on that darn cow at the Pee Wee Stampede, part of the annual Cowboy Breakfast.
A stick horse bronc riding participant was skeptical of the whole enterprise. The children’s games are part of the annual Cowboy Breakfast, which was Friday.
Debbie Doran-Martinez, Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce, presents New Hope Director Kim Hope with more than $1,000 donated at the Cowboy Breakfast Friday.
Pee Wee Stampede announcer Anne Fisher helps one of the contestants through the barrel racing course.
Little Miss Peewee Stampede Queen Layne Parker checks out her sash. The children’s rodeo contest is a tradition at the Cowboy Breakfast.
A Pee Wee Stampede participant gives it her all in the bull riding competition at the Cowboy Breakfast, the traditional kickoff for the Moses Lake Roundup and Grant County Fair.ARTICLES BY CHERYL SCHWEIZER
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