Senior donates food, firewood for project

MOSES LAKE - A Moses Lake High School senior's project generated enough donated food to help 20 families over the Christmas season, and enough firewood to help two more families stay warm.

Chris Burns spent five Saturdays collecting food at Grocery Outlet, his mom Melissa Carey said. "Me and my mom came up with (the idea)," Chris said. His original plan was just to cut some firewood, he said; his mom suggested adding the food drive, and thought it was a good idea.

In addition to the Saturdays at the Grocery Outlet he collected food in a couple of Moses Lake neighborhoods. His goal was to get enough food for three families, Carey said, but he ended up with a lot more than that. "Our whole garage was packed full of cans," he said.

"Just a ton of food," Carey said.

"He collected a whole truckload of (food). That truck was full," Patricia Wride said, a volunteer at Serve Moses Lake and community services director for ACS of Love. The ACS of Love group is the community outreach organization for the Seventh day Adventist Church, and its members were in charge of distributing Chris's donation.

At first Chris wasn't sure he collected enough food for three families, Carey said. It turned out he collected enough food for 20, Wride said. Learning that "felt really good," he said.

It took work, a lot more than he expected, but "it was definitely worth it," Burns said.

Burns didn't give up on the firewood part of the project; he called Wride back after Christmas, saying he cut some trees on the family property. He refilled the truck with firewood. The wood was split between two families who use wood as their primary source of heat, Wride said.

"It was fun. I really liked it," Burns said. Any juniors looking for a senior project should consider community service, he said, "It was a really interesting project to do." It pushed him out of his comfort zone, Chris said, and helped him learn more about the community, he said.