Bulls, broncs and biscuits

MOSES LAKE — The Grant County Fair is a big deal in Grant County, and it’s only fitting that it should have a proper introduction. That happens the Friday before the fair, which this year is Aug. 9. The breakfast, hosted by the Kiwanis Club of Moses Lake, will be from 7 to 10 a.m. at Sinkiuse Square next to the post office. 

“A lot of people who work in Moses Lake come and eat before they go to work,” said Dayna Dent, who’s coordinated the breakfast for the Kiwanis for the last three years. 

The Cowboy Breakfast has been going on for 25-30 years, according to Kiwanian James Shank. The menu will include biscuits and gravy, sausage, scrambled eggs, coffee and juice for $17 per plate.  

Up until a few years ago, Michael’s on the Lake supplied the ingredients for a pancake breakfast and Kiwanis members cooked the food on the spot, Shank said. When Michael’s decided it didn’t want to continue, the Kiwanis Club cooked at the senior center for a couple of years, Shank said, and this year Top Gun Concessions & Catering will bring the food to the park.  

Top Gun found biscuits and gravy much easier logistically than pancakes, Dent said. 

“Do you have any idea how heavy those (pancake) grills are?” she said. 

Serving and cleanup will be provided by volunteers from Kiwanis, Dent said, assisted by some young people from Key Club, the Kiwanis’ high school branch. Dale Roth Productions will supply the music and announcements. Members of the Moses Lake Roundup Rodeo Association will set up the panels and banners the night before and the tables in the morning. 

While attendees are enjoying the breakfast, they can also watch the Pee Wee Stampede stick horse rodeo, which lets kids 9 years old and younger compete in roping a stationary steer head, staying on stick horse bucking broncs, racing those same wooden steeds around barrels and competing for the prestigious title of Little Miss Moses Lake Roundup. 

“People love (the stick horse rodeo),” Dent said. “It gets a lot of families involved too.” 

In theory, the Cowboy Breakfast is a fundraiser, Shank said, but with the rising cost of food in the post-COVID-19 era, it breaks even. It’s mostly a fun community event now, he said. 

The Kiwanis Club’s main fundraiser is a booth at the Agri-Service Demo Derby from Aug. 13-14 and the Moses Lake Roundup Rodeo from Aug. 16-17. There, they offer hot dogs, German sausages and nachos, all of which can be smothered in chili and cheese, popcorn and lemonade. That brings in about $15,000 a year, Shank said. 

All the monies raised go back out into the community, Dent said, for projects by organizations like the Boys and Girls Club or Care Moses Lake. 

The Cowboy Breakfast brings about 200-300 people to Sinkiuse Square most years, Shank said, which is a great way to get the community together. 

“One of the reasons I love living in Moses Lake and raised my family here was because of the sense of community that we have, and opportunities like this to really connect with the community, put aside politics and come out and enjoy each other,” Shank said.

    A roping contestant tries her best to take down that steer at last year’s Cowboy Breakfast. This year’s breakfast is Friday.
  

    Running the barrels is a rodeo event in the Pee Wee Stampede at the Cowboy Breakfast.