Elks give young bowlers a shot at the pins
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 8 hours, 15 minutes AGO
Seven-year-old EJ gets ready to hurl his ball down the lane at Lake Bowl Friday, as part of the Moses Lake Elks Lodge’s bowling camp.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
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. | October 22, 2026 3:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Elks Lodge finished its bowling camp Friday with whoops of joy intermingling with the thrum of bowling balls and the crash of pins.
“The kids got to go at the end of September and get a little instruction, and then they got measured for bowling balls, and then they got to play,” said Moses Elks Lodge Exalted Ruler Debbie Doran-Martinez.
The former Elks Lodge, which folded several years ago, used to hold a golf camp for kids, but with school in session, that wasn’t very feasible, Doran-Martinez said. Instead, the Elks partnered with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Columbia Basin to bring the kids from its Longview Elementary clubhouse to Lake Bowl. Besides getting to bowl a game, each child took home their own bowling ball and bag, donated by Lake Bowl. The first game was held Sept. 28; Friday was the second and final.
The lodge plans to continue the camp next year, Doran-Martinez said, with a different Boys & Girls Club clubhouse.
Between 30 and 40 kids came to the bowling camp, Doran-Martinez said, which meant the few volunteers who came with the Elks had their hands full. For Saturday’s bowling, wrestlers and basketball players from Big Bend Community College came to lend a hand.
“We needed (the athletes) to keep the kids focused and remind them, only one person in a bowling lane at a time and you have to shoot two balls and that kind of stuff,” Doran-Martinez said. “And then also when the instruction was done, teaching them how to enter their names on the monitors to they could see their name up on the screen. So we had plenty of big kids to help the little kids.”
To make the bowling fairer, the BBCC volunteers had a handicap; they had to bowl with their nondominant hand and couldn’t use bumpers when competing with the club kids.
“It’s got to be fun for the little kids to root against them,” said Kim Pope, a member of the Elks Lodge and former executive director of the Boys & Girls Club. “The kids have such a good time, and some of them have never bowled before, and then having the Big Bend kids come out here has been awesome.”
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
SR 24 closed after bus-semi collision
MATTAWA — A collision between a semi and a passenger bus sent at least 11 people to the hospital and has closed state Route 24 about 13 miles east of Mattawa, according to a statement from the Washington State Patrol. The bus was transporting workers and was not a school bus, according to a statement from the Grant County Sheriff’s Office. The collision occurred a little before 7 a.m. Thursday at the intersection of SR 24 and Road 24 Southwest, according to the WSP. The exact number of injured and the extent of their injuries was not immediately available. The injured parties were taken to different local hospitals, according to the GCSO.
‘Be the crutch’
Shared experience fuels North Central Washington Peer Connection
MOSES LAKE — In a little converted upstairs apartment in downtown Moses Lake, a few people are quietly making a huge difference. “We help people with housing, education, employment; if they want to get food stamps, we'll help them do their application for food stamps,” said North Central Washington Peer Connection Program Director Brandi Russell. “Whatever they're walking along the path to, we'll stand with them and help them with that at the moment.” Sometimes that involves helping people find a bed in a rehab center, and sometimes it means finding housing, and sometimes it means helping them resume their education, Russell said. But sometimes the goals are more immediate: food, clothes and a place to go that doesn’t cost anything.
Elks give young bowlers a shot at the pins
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Elks Lodge finished its bowling camp Friday with whoops of joy intermingling with the thrum of bowling balls and the crash of pins. “The kids got to go at the end of September and get a little instruction, and then they got measured for bowling balls, and then they got to play,” said Moses Elks Lodge Exalted Ruler Debbie Doran-Martinez. The former Elks Lodge, which folded several years ago, used to hold a golf camp for kids, but with school in session, that wasn’t very feasible, Doran-Martinez said. Instead, the Elks partnered with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Columbia Basin to bring the kids from its Longview Elementary clubhouse to Lake Bowl. Besides getting to bowl a game, each child took home their own bowling ball and bag, donated by Lake Bowl. The first game was held Sept. 28; Friday was the second and final.