‘A story of hope’
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 month, 1 week AGO
Brookdale Hearthstone hosted the 30th annual Moses Lake Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast Thursday.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Moses Lake Mayor Dustin Swartz reads from the Book of Jeremiah at the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning.
Students from the Moses Lake High School Chamber Choir, led by David Holloway, sing the National Anthem at the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning.
Keynote speaker Malachi Salcido speaks about divine guidance through life’s ups and downs at the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast Thursday.
Pastors Mary, left, and Mike Alvarado of Restore City Church read from the Bible and pray for the nation at the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast Thursday.
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. | May 11, 2026 1:05 AM
MOSES LAKE — About 80 people gathered in the dining room at Brookdale Hearthstone Assisted Living Facility early Thursday morning for bacon, eggs and prayer.
“(We pray) that we may foster a better community here in Moses Lake for us, for our children, our grandchildren and the generations to come,” Mayor Dustin Swartz said.
Thursday’s was the 30th Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast the Moses Lake Kiwanis has organized, according to Francine Irwin, who led the committee that planned it. The breakfast was canceled last year for lack of a venue the Kiwanis could afford, Irwin said, but Brookdale Hearthstone donated both its dining room and the food. The proceeds from the breakfast will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Association, she said.
The event began with two Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center Criminal Justice students, Ileana Apolonio and Breanna Quintero, presenting the colors. Volunteer students from the Moses Lake High School Chamber Choir, led by David Holloway, sang the national anthem and followed it up with three more songs.
Moses Lake Mayor Dustin Swartz and Grant County Commissioner Rob Jones provided both Scripture readings and prayer. State Rep. Alex Ybarra was scheduled to attend, but was unable to make it, so Moses Lake City Council member Joel Graves filled in.
The prayer for the nation was led by Restore City Church Pastors Mike and Mary Alvarado. Mary Alvarado chose a passage from the Gospel of John, which read in part, “My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay one's life for one's friends.” Mike Alvarado prayed that the United States would be blessed with righteousness and freed of hatred, racism, and drugs.
The keynote speaker was Malachi Salcido, founder and CEO of the Salcido Group of Companies, an interconnected group of businesses in the construction, engineering, HVAC and electrical fields, among others. Salcido spoke about his early career as an accountant, and then the process, often fraught with risk, of building his businesses from scratch.
“I’m screwed up,” Salcido said. “(Being screwed up) gives you a testimony: whenever you have a victory, that’s a breakthrough. And I’m so screwed up, I’ve got breakthroughs coming out all over the place.”
Salcido graduated from Wenatchee High School, he said, just barely.
“When I was in high school, I was not singing in the choir,” he said. “They were just trying to get me to stay long enough that they could hand me a diploma so they didn’t have to deal with me anymore.”
At Wenatchee Valley College, Salcido said, he rediscovered his faith and also met his wife of 30 years, who was from Moses Lake. Early in their marriage, the two of them were working full-time and barely making it, he said.
“Never did we dream we would end up going from dual income, just trying to make it in an apartment to overseeing a large company,” he said. “How did that happen? Well, God has a sense of humor. (The Bible) says he uses the foolish things of this world to shame the wise. And I really resonate with that scripture because it's like, ‘Oh, I’m who you're talking about.”
Building his businesses was a 25-year roller coaster, Salcido said, with opportunities like the advent of data centers and cryptocurrency, and lows like the recession of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the business cycle and raising four children, Salcido said, he credited coming through it to divine guidance.
“The story of our family is a story … of hope,” he said. “It's a story of light overcoming the darkness. If you're like me, you're tempted to think your community is going to hell in a handbasket. … And my story is a living testimony that is not true.”
Moses Lake Mayor Dustin Swartz reads from the Book of Jeremiah at the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning.
Students from the Moses Lake High School Chamber Choir, led by David Holloway, sing the National Anthem at the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning.
Keynote speaker Malachi Salcido speaks about divine guidance through life’s ups and downs at the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast Thursday.
Pastors Mary, left, and Mike Alvarado of Restore City Church read from the Bible and pray for the nation at the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast Thursday.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Hard-earned success
BBCC students step into the world armed with diplomas and courage
MOSES LAKE — Genuine success is neither quick nor easy, as the students who graduated Thursday from Big Bend Community College attested. There's a simple story I remember when I was younger,” Associated Student Body President Pedro Lopez said, alternating between English and Spanish. “It's about a kid who plants a seed. At first nothing happens. They water it every day, but the ground still looks the same. They start to wonder if anything is happening at all. They think about digging it up to check, that maybe it didn't work. Maybe nothing is growing. But they keep watering anyway.
Flags, fireworks and parades
Basin communities gear up for the Fourth of July
MOSES LAKE — The United States only turns 250 years old once, and Basin communities are preparing to celebrate in a big way. Moses Lake starts the festivities a day early, with its Red, White and Boom celebration on July 3. There will be food vendors in McCosh Park and a live performance by the 133d Army National Guard Band, followed by fireworks at 10 p.m. The town named for the Father of our Country will host festivities all day, including a fun run, parade, patriotic program and the world’s largest cherry pie at the George Community Hall. The Quincy Valley Historical Society will bring its American History Mobile Museum, and Jeremy McComb’s Honky-Tonk Circus will perform, sponsored by Veterans Operation Creation. The day will finish with fireworks at dusk.
MLCC to host conversational town hall Thursday
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Community Coalition will try to kick-start some conversations Thursday at a town hall titled “What's Troubling You, Moses Lake?” “The feedback that we've gotten for all of our prior town halls is people enjoyed them, but they wish there was more of an opportunity to talk,” said Coalition Coordinator Megan Watson. “So we (said), ‘Let's create a town hall event where that's the point – where you come and talk in small groups.’” The coalition holds town hall meetings every year, Watson said, and in the past they’ve focused on specific issues, like gangs or addiction, with local experts on those subjects giving information to the community. This time, Watson said, the MLCC is partnering with Braver Angels, a national organization dedicated to helping Americans practice courageous citizenship across political differences, according to its website. The event, which will take place at the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center, is free and open to the public.