‘Stars, Stripes and Shamrocks’
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 7 months, 1 week AGO
Achilles Moreno, right, and his sister Kimberlee Moreno lead their parents Ricco and Krissy Moreno around last year’s Moses Lake Business Expo. This year’s event is Tuesday.
FILE PHOTO
Kar Vanerstrom dressed as a traffic cone in keeping with a construction theme at last year’s Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce Business Expo. The theme this year is “Stars, Stripes and Shamrocks,” a celebrating both America’s 250th birthday and St. Patrick’s Day.
Jose Pacheco of Okanagan Specialty Fruits prepares to “putt” a golf ball with a pool cue at Bud Clary Auto Group’s Moses Lake Business Expo booth last year. This year’s event is 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. | March 13, 2026 3:15 AM
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce Business Expo has a dual theme for 2026, Executive Director Debbie Doran-Martinez said.
“With it being the Semiquincentennial, we're theming everything American for America's birthday,” Doran-Martinez said. “However, the event fell on Saint Paddy's Day, and we can't just ignore that, so we're doing a little mashup. (The theme is) ‘Stars, Stripes and Shamrocks.’ We'll have people decorating for Saint Patrick's Day, we'll have people decorating for America's birthday and some people just doing their own thing.”
The expo is bigger than it’s ever been this year, Doran-=Martinez said. Lat year it filed the 4-H and Commercial buildings at the Grant County Fairgrounds to bursting, so this year it’s expanded into the Ag Building as well. All three buildings are connected, so attendees can walk easily among exhibits.
There will be 110 booths set up to display local businesses and organizations, Doran-Martinez said. The exact number of businesses was a little nebulous; some businesses have more than one booth, and some are doubling up.
Each attendee will receive a Blackout Bingo card to add a little fun to the tour of booths, Doran-Martinez said.
“These bingo cards have 25 businesses on them,” she said. “We've got five different versions of them so that (all the businesses get on the cards). It just encourages the attendees to go around to at least 25 of the booths and get a, get a little initial or a stamp or something from that booth and then they can be entered into a drawing.”
Drawing prizes include a pair of Meta AI glasses that can record video and take phone calls, Doran-Martinez said, and a 3D hologram stand.
Kip Burns has exhibited his businesses Blinds for Any Budget and B and B Overhead Doors at past expos, he said. This time he’s returning to showcase his most recent business, Bug Out extermination service, with his partner Josh Gilliam.
“The timing is fantastic for (the Business Expo) because people are ready to get out of their houses (after) the winter,” Burns said. “It's professionally run. That's what I like about it. And it’s well attended; it's important to us with businesses that we get to see a lot of folks there. It's a good time … and we get a lot of business out of it.”
More information on the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce and this event may be found at www.moseslake.com.
Kar Vanerstrom dressed as a traffic cone in keeping with a construction theme at last year’s Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce Business Expo. The theme this year is “Stars, Stripes and Shamrocks,” a celebrating both America’s 250th birthday and St. Patrick’s Day.
Jose Pacheco of Okanagan Specialty Fruits prepares to “putt” a golf ball with a pool cue at Bud Clary Auto Group’s Moses Lake Business Expo booth last year. This year’s event is Tuesday.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
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BASIN EVENTS: Oct. 16-24
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