Residents unite,fill Soroptimist holiday boxes

MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake community rose to the challenge of providing three boxes full of food to 150 families in need for the holidays.

Volunteers filled a space on Penn Street Saturday and Monday to prepare the boxes, containing such items as frozen carrots, celery, turkey, milk and other Thanksgiving staples. Then the boxes were shipped to several locations throughout town for dispensing.

The busy undertaking was for Soroptimist International of Moses Lake's annual Thanksgiving Food Basket Project.

Project chair Faye Maslen said about 30 people - consisting of Soroptimist members and family and friends - showed up Saturday, and there were about the same amount of volunteers on Monday, although many of them were not Soroptimist members.

"To do this, most of the Soroptimist ladies have to take off work," Maslen said. "There's a few of us that are retired, but most of them are working ladies."

A number of the volunteers were Moses Lake High School students seeking credit for their Civics and Law class.

"We need 10 hours of community service," explained Stephanie Jacobs.

Working to fill the boxes would be good for about four hours of service, Jacobs and Brandi Mann estimated.

"It's exciting," Mann said. "It feels good helping."

"It's cool to see how many people turned out to help," Jacobs said.

Maslen said things were going well.

"We appreciate the support Soroptimist gets in Moses Lake from everybody, and a lot of the support is for this program," she said.

Companies who showed their support from around the Columbia Basin included Pacific Produce, Hansen Produce, National Frozen Foods, Jensen Farms Produce and Kelly Beans, Maslen said.

"Usually, anybody we have asked for help has helped, and it's really nice to be able to count on them to do that," she said. "We've had outstanding support from the community this year. And we have farmers who have helped us over the years … People come in and help, they've helped us in the past, they'll help us again."

Paul Templeton is one of those people who keeps coming back each year to offer his assistance.

"It's something to do, exercise," he said. "Faye's a friend and also all these ladies are my friends. Just exercise and helping people."

Randy Visker is another person who has lent his support to the organization's efforts.

"Well, my wife is in Soroptimist," he said. "And I've been doing it for 10 or 15 years."

What keeps him coming back?

"Orders from my wife," he said with a laugh. "I do as I'm told."

Soroptimist member Donna Sporleder has been participating for many years.

"I enjoy Soroptimist, I enjoy the people and if we can help the town for the families, I am more than willing to help," she said. "We have so much help this year, non-Soroptimist members and we've got husbands, neighbors and friends that have come and helped this year. More than ever."