Lunch, prizes and fun coming at Senior Picnic
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 months, 2 weeks AGO
About 900 people are expected for lunch, door prizes and a visit with senior-oriented businesses at the 12th annual Senior Picnic in Moses Lake June 10.
FILE PHOTO
Seniors socialize at a previous, Hawaiian-themed Senior Picnic. This year’s theme will be red, white and blue for the semiquincentennial.
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 21, 2026 3:05 AM
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Senior Picnic will be bigger this year, said Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce Director Debbie Doran-Martinez.
“We’re expecting 900 seniors,” Doran-Martinez said. “We’ll have the (Grant County Fairgrounds) 4-H Building full of vendors … and we’ll have some vendors outside the front door as well, because there’s not enough room in the building for everybody.”
The picnic part will be held next door in the Commercial Building, with the band Cheyenne playing, Doran-Martinez said.
The theme is America’s 250th birthday, she said, and attendees are encouraged to dress in red, white and blue.
The Senior Picnic is free to everyone 55 and older, and there’s a nominal charge of $5 for everyone else. Besides a hot meal, there will be live music by Cheyenne, a resource fair with businesses and organizations that serve seniors and door prizes donated by those vendors.
“All the vendors are required to bring something, so there’s a really good chance of being able to win something,” said Senior Living Sales Specialist Karisti Cox with Brookdale Hearthstone, one of the event’s sponsors. “That’s a super fun incentive, that people can walk away not only with the pens and the backscratchers, those types of things, but they also get the opportunity to win some things that would be a benefit to them.”
The food is prepared in the kitchens of the senior living communities that sponsor the picnic, Cox said. There will be a golf cart shuttle between the parking lot and the buildings housing the event, so nobody gets too tired on their way to the picnic to enjoy it.
There were about 40 vendors signed up Tuesday for the resource fair, Doran-Martinez said, and a few more may still reserve space before the event.
“This is a time to show the seniors in a very short amount of time what is available to them,” Cox said. “(There will be) some networking and some time for the seniors to be able to ask questions and put a face to the resources that they need. One of the key factors is being able to see who offers senior discounts and who offers the services that they need.”
The Senior Picnic is different from other events because, well, it’s specially geared toward seniors, Cox said.
“Everything that is done in the event is done (thinking) of what is going to accommodate the senior the best,” she said. “Down to measuring how far apart (the tables) are so that wheelchairs can get in and walkers can get through. There is no aspect of the event that is not thought through thoroughly in order to enable seniors to be most successful and have the most fun.”
Senior Picnic
Wednesday, June 10
10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Lunch served at 12 p.m.
Grant County Fairgrounds
3953 Airway Drive NE
Moses Lake
Seniors socialize at a previous, Hawaiian-themed Senior Picnic. This year’s theme will be red, white and blue for the semiquincentennial.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
QUINCY — Quincy’s National Night Out was more compact this year, which worked out well, said QPD Sgt. Joe Westby, who’s in charge of event planning for the Quincy Police Department. “National Night Out is a big event, and the fact that we’re able to shrink it up is like a breath of fresh air,” Westby said. “If you're always doing the same thing, it's kind of nice to switch things up and see how it works.” National Night Out took place Thursday on the block of C Street next to the police station, a shift from previous years when it was held at Lauzier Park. The smaller space meant fewer emergency vehicles for children to explore, but it also meant less walking for attendees. Grant County Fire District 5 brought a fire truck, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office had a patrol boat. Renew, the Grant County behavioral health agency, had a booth and so did Quincy Partnership for Youth. Veterans Operation Creation sang the national anthem, and the Quincy Animal Shelter brought kittens that piled over each other making friends with passersby. As before, the QPD served grilled hot dogs.
Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.