Cowboy breakfast moves to McCosh Park

Long-running event provides social outlet in new location

MOSES LAKE — Those looking to start off the Grant County Fair with a breakfast fit for a cowboy will have to look in a different spot this year.

The longtime annual event, sponsored by the Moses Lake Kiwanis, the Moses Lake Rodeo Association and the Moses Lake Business Association, will take place in front of the amphitheater at McCosh Park this year, instead of at its traditional Sinkiuse Square location, as the square is closed up due to construction.

"Sinkiuse Square is going to be unusable," MLBA executive director Sally Goodwin said with a chuckle. "If it's not torn up, it will be full."

The event, a fund-raiser for Kiwanis' local scholarship, is a kick-off for the fair and for the rodeo, Goodwin said.

Moses Lake Kiwanis president Ken Sterner said the fund-raiser allows his organization to perform all its basic functions for the community, as well as scholarships for graduating seniors and programs for youth throughout Moses Lake.

The breakfast kicks off Friday at 6 a.m. and runs through 10 a.m. Menu offerings include pancakes, sausage, eggs and beverages.

Sterner said about 500 people were in attendance last year, and he was expecting a similar turnout for Friday.

"I think people keep coming back because it's kind of the kick-off for Grant County Fair," Sterner said. "It's also an opportunity for the community to come together as a whole. When you come to the cowboy breakfast, you will end up meeting some of your own legislators, city officials, not to mention business leaders, community leaders, that type of thing. I think it's just a good chance for all of us to become a community and get the fair weekend started off in the right direction."

Dale Roth will provide entertainment, including cowboy poet Ron Tebow.

The event started initially took place on Ash Street, and consisted of a small wagon and two tables.

"It used to be a little tiny thing," Goodwin said. "Everybody enjoys the social outlet — they come and visit with their friends, and have a wonderful breakfast for a very minimal amount of money, and realize the money is going to a fund-raiser at that."

At first, those people who arrive are typically the business people partaking in the festivities before they head to work, Goodwin said. By 8:30 or 9 a.m., the majority of those eating are retired seniors who sit and enjoy the music and chat with their neighbors and friends.

"It's just real interesting to see the progression of people that come through," Goodwin said.

For Sterner, the best part is watching community leaders interact with the community members.

"Any time you can go to an event, and you have the chief of police next to the chief of the fire department flipping pancakes and baking eggs, and you have city officials, school district employees and community action people sitting in a row and serving people, because all those people and all those organizations they represent are about serving people," he said, "and I think that's the coolest thing for me."