Art, wine walk draws crowd to Moses Lake

MOSES LAKE - A little walk, a little wine and the chance to look at a lot of local art at downtown businesses drew an interested crowd to the first Art and Wine Walk Saturday.

The event was sponsored by the Moses Lake Business Association.

"We had some requests for an event like this," said association secretary Michaelle Boetger. There are lots of wineries and artists locally, Boetger said, and to match them up with downtown businesses seemed like a good match.

Boetger said most participants bought tickets during the event, so she didn't know how many people attended. "It's been a great turnout." It's difficult to know what the reaction will be to a new event, she said, but the reaction to the wine walk was encouraging.

Participating downtown businesses did see an increase in foot traffic from a normal Saturday afternoon. "We've had a pretty heavy flow of people," said Kyleigh Boorman, one of the co-owners of the Red Door consignment shop.

"It's brought back a lot of people who haven't been downtown for a while," said Sue Torrence, owner of Sue's Gift Boutique. "People are excited about it. Something to do."

Jan Thacker is one of the artists and a co-owner of Red Door. "This wonderful. I love things like this.

"Anything they do downtown is helpful. We really want to promote downtown."

In addition to Thacker, participating artists include Alex Boorman, Christina Lopez Perales, Fae Mitchell, Laura Mayer, Caitlin Ham, Don Nutt, Deb Polito, Shawn Willmorth, Melinda Henry, Ken Russell and Jennifer Taylor.

Participating wineries included Neppel Cellars, Moses Lake; Dry Falls Cellars, Moses Lake; White Heron Cellars, Quincy; Camas Cove Cellars, Moses Lake; Milbrandt Vineyard, Prosser; Foxy Roxy Winery, Othello; Frenchman Hills Winery, Royal City; Jones of Washington, Quincy and Beaumont Cellars, Quincy.

Other participating businesses were Reffett Loan and Pawn, Fae's Books and Crafts; ArtGarden Pottery; Third and Alder Salon; Furniture West; The Hive; Knot Release Therapy; Michael's Market and Bistro and Classy and Crazy Cakes.