Fund raising through the fair food court

MOSES LAKE - People visit the Grant County Fair to watch (and root for) exhibitors in the show ring, to look at the exhibits, ride the carnival rides, go to the demolition derby or the rodeo.

And - even though they may deny it - for the fair food.

Fair food is the Lioness Club commemorating 50 years of Spaceburgers, or maybe the German sausage at the Knights of Columbus booth, sponsored by the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Ephrata. (There are a couple other places that serve German sausage, "but we have the best," said one of the volunteers working the booth.)

Fair food is the elephant ears from the Moses Lake Lions, or a hamburger from the Ephrata Lions, or a fruit smoothie from the Moses Lake Business Association. It's Block 40 ice cream.

As time moves on, some drop out while others drop in. The Moses Lake Moose booth is shuttered for 2014. But the Robo teams painted their new cinderblock booth in bright primary colors, the better to simulate building blocks, club coordinator Kat Stebbins said.

And it all runs on volunteers. Some of the spaceburger cooks come from the Lioness Club but others were from the local roller derby team, local wrestling teams, or the cheerleading squad.

"Fifty years of yum" is the motto for Spaceburgers 2014. It was 1964 that the mix of hamburger and a secret sauce on white bread, cooked in the special Spaceburger machine, made its debut in Grant County, Lioness Pat Simmons said. "We've sold over a million" in 50 years, Simmons said. "We do it so we can fund our charitable giving," she said. The Lioness Club supports organizations and clubs like the roller derby and the wrestlers and cheerleaders, as well as events like Relay for Life, Simmons said.

Like the spaceburgers, Block 40 ice cream is a fair tradition, and working the booth is a tradition for some of the volunteers. (The money is used for scholarships for kids living in Block 40, according to previous articles in the Columbia Basin Herald.)

Matthew Schafer said he's been serving ice cream at the Block 40 booth for 10 years. He was working Wednesday morning with Hannah Adams. "I've been doing this," Hannah consulted her phone, "for an hour and 15 minutes."

Schafer had a little advice to pass along from his 10 years. "The machines are in charge. You aren't," he said. The machines are classics in their way, at least 30 years old and maybe older. "They have a mind of their own," Schafer said.

Hannah isn't completely new to a fair food booth - she was signed up for a shift at the MLHS band booth, but moved on to Block 40 when they asked the band boosters for help.

The band is selling pizza slices, pretzels and drinks to raise money for a trip to Disneyland next summer, sophomore Austin Langer said. (Austin plays the saxophone and French horn.) The staff was a mix of veterans and newbies Wednesday morning. "It gets a lot easier," said Josh Baldwin, class of 2015, who's in the percussion section and is a pizza booth veteran.

Time can hang heavy on a slow shift. "It's better when it's busy. More to do," Josh said.

The Robo team is selling "Nothin' but Fluff," a booth full of cotton candy. "Gourmet cotton candy," Stebbins said. The Robos are old hands at running a booth and working the concessions for events in McCosh Park.

The Robo teams have been at the fair for a few years with a demonstration table. But there's a new team in 2014, she said. It's for kids in high school, she said, and it's a lot more expensive. The Robos needed to make more money, Stebbins said, and there was a booth open in the food court. It's not a big space, but there was enough room to make cotton candy, Stebbins said.