Dynamic support: Auction sells out for local youth outreach

MOSES LAKE — The annual Youth Dynamics fundraiser saw a huge turnout this year and raised thousands of dollars for the organization to benefit local youth.

Youth Dynamics is a Christian youth organization spread throughout Washington, Oregon and Idaho since being founded in 1970. It has been in Moses Lake since 1996 and is the only Youth Dynamics in Grant County.

This year, it raised money for three particular areas: a new transportation van, student scholarships for wilderness adventure trips and for general operating expenses relating to the Moses Lake Youth Dynamics building.

The event sold $50 tickets for dinner and had a silent and live auction. Dinner included prime rib, baked potatoes, green beans and salad and was catered by Top Gun Concession & Catering’s Danette Biallas, Laurie Coombs, Randy Martin and Jim and Joy Duzon.

Director of Youth Dynamics Moses Lake Sean Sallis said he shut down registration at 3 p.m. the day of the event because there was no more space.

This has been one of the biggest turnouts in recent years. Normally, the event only sees about 150 people, Jim Duzon said, but this year it was nearly 250. Duzon explained his catering company has been serving the dinners for many years and the most they had were around 160 attendees.

The fundraiser is also normally held in the spring and at a building on the Columbia Basin Community College campus. This year, however, it was held at the 4-H building at the Grant County Fairgrounds and in the middle of October. Sallis said the change of season was just to change things up and he felt like the 4-H building would have more space. The only other fundraising the group does each year is running a booth at the Grant County Fair.

“We operate 100% off of donations,” Sallis said.

The live auction had a variety of items, from filets of Alaskan sockeye salmon to a crabbing trip in the San Juan Islands. A gourmet dinner for 10, cooked by local chef Chuck Brumet, was also auctioned off.

Daniel and Robin Higgins said this was their first time at the event. Robin said she knew Sallis from church and he told her about the event so she and her husband decided to attend. She said they enjoyed the event and plan to attend again next year.

The event raised thousands of dollars, but the total was unknown by press time. However, the “dessert dash” part of the event brought in $7,570 by itself. The dessert dash was a point in the night where each table put varying amounts of donations into envelopes and whichever table donated the most picked the table’s dessert first from a table of delicious looking treats.

Sallis is a Moses Lake native and was a participant in Youth Dynamics when it started in Moses Lake in 1996. He has been the director of Moses Lake Youth Dynamics for only seven or eight months and said he sees it as his way of giving back to the ministry that gave him so much. He said his dream is to expand into smaller communities in Grant County and establish chapters.