'This is so cool'

MOSES LAKE — A large collection of trucks and big vehicles gathered in the parking lot behind Moses Lake Presbyterian Church on Saturday for the Touch-A-Truck fundraiser.

Ladder engines from the Moses Lake Fired Department and Grant County Fire District 5, a Moses Lake Police Department armored BearCat, a Grant County Sheriff’s Office patrol and rescue boat, a Grant Transit Authority bus, even an 80-foot Genie lift, a big red tractor, and a giant Lakeside Disposal and Recycle garbage truck were all part of the event.

Attendees could hear the same words spoken by young ones across the gravel parking lot even as a steady drizzle fell:

“Cool! This is so cool,” the children said.

It was the first Touch-A-Truck fundraiser held by Mothers of Preschoolers, an organization that helps support young mothers and provides a place for them to meet, seek advice and just find some friends.

“We weren’t going to let a little rain stop us,” said Nicole Strom, a MOPS member and one of the organizers of the Saturday event.

A Touch-A-Truck fundraiser — tickets were $5 per person, or $20 for a household of six — seemed like a perfect idea for a community still emerging from pandemic closures and lockdowns, Strom said.

“I’ve been to a couple of these before, and they’re a lot of fun. Kids really like it, and our community needs some events to go to,” she said.

For some, like Genie and Lakeside Disposal and Recycle, this is their first time hauling their big vehicles out and letting kids climb all over them.

“We want to be part of the community,” said Lakeside Disposal and Recycle’s Jake Cooney. “Doing events for children is part of that.”

In another part of the parking lot, Audrey Surface stands and watches while her two young sons, William and Oliver, climb all over a GCSO patrol boat.

“The boys just wanted to come see the trucks. They’re pretty excited, they see them around town, and now they get to get in and touch everything,” she said.

“It’s cool!” William said as he sat behind the wheel of the motorboat.

“I’m the full-time maritime deputy,” said GCSO Deputy Chris McClanahan, who noted he does everything from water and boating safety education to search and rescue operations.

And it doesn’t matter whether the water is the Columbia River as it winds along the county’s western border or O’Sullivan Reservoir or Moses Lake.

“Any body of water Grant County touches, I’m all over it,” he said.

April Taylor, a member of MOPS with three small children of her own — Abigail, Greyson and Elijah — watched as her kids climbed all over a big red tractor.

“Most of us have kids that are in preschool or younger, and it’s a great place to be able to hang out with other moms who are kind of in the same life space as we are, discussing issues you’re having,” she said.

Those connections are important, Taylor said.

“You have a support system in town for the moms who don’t necessarily have family here,” she said.

Abigail, who had been sitting in one of the tractor’s giant wheel wells after climbing up into the cab and looking around, explained what it was about this machine that interested her.

“It’s pretty cool,” she said. “It’s really tall and it makes us feel like giants.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabaisnherald.com.