Realtors help with donations to food bank

MOSES LAKE — It was the perfect place for a food drive.

A group of real estate agents from the Moses Lake-Othello Association of Realtors gathered under what was at first a slightly gloomy sky on Tuesday at the old Windermere offices on West Broadway to solicit donations of food and money for those hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re going through some really hard times,” said Mary Thorn, a real estate agent for Coldwell Banker in Moses Lake. “A lot of people in our community have lost their jobs, and there’s just not enough money to go around.”

Thorn, who said she has helped people buy and sell homes in and around Moses Lake for 28 years, said that’s why she was standing on the corner of West Broadway and South Interlake Road, just across the street from the old Windermere building, where the Moses Lake-Othello Association of Realtors was soliciting donations for the Moses Lake Food Bank.

“With COVID-19, there’s definitely more people that need help with food, so we’re doing our part to help our community,” said Kandi Bersanti, a real estate broker for Windermere and current president of the association.

Bersanti said the need was also critical for other non-perishable items, such as diapers, toilet paper, paper napkins, paper towels and paper plates.

The group started at 10 a.m. and was out asking for donations until 2 p.m., and had received a pretty good response, according to Bersanti.

“We’ve got a big truck behind us,” she said. “We’re going to try and fill it up.”

It’s not the first donation the association made in the last few days. On Monday, the Realtors’ group donated $1,500 to the Grant County Conservation District to help support continued study of the ongoing blue-green algae problem in Moses Lake.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected].