Moses Lake celebrates America with music, fireworks

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake’s Red, White and Boom! Celebration on Wednesday drew out a respectable crowd, said Moses Lake Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Director Doug Coutts.

“I would say we were in the hundreds, probably close to the higher hundreds, not quite 1,000,” Coutts said. “There was a really good turnout.”

The celebration wasn’t the all-day or multi-day affair with which Moses Lake has marked the Fourth of July in years past; all the action took place in one evening. But there were food and craft vendors, the fireworks show and a concert by the 133d Washington National Guard Band.

“They did an incredible job,” Coutts said. “It was a three-hour band performance followed by 20 minutes of fireworks. And extremely patriotic. I thought it was amazing to have a military band there for the Fourth festivities.”

The 40-member 133d Washington National Guard Band is based at Camp Murray, adjacent to Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Tacoma, according to its commander, WO1 Matthew Wenman. The performance featured a range of styles from traditional jazz to rock. The band serves as sort of an outreach to the wider world, said Sgt. Niko Woodin, who played tuba in Wednesday’s performance.

“With the army, there's typically a band at every installation,” Woodin said. “And they often function as a support role. The biggest factor for us that comes from our big brass, our bosses, is recruitment sustainment. Typically, we're the first people that civilians will see that are in uniform. So our mission is hearts and minds.”

Woodin has been playing the tuba for about 10 years, he said. And he’s in familiar company in the National Guard band.

“Sgt. Schmidt, our bari sax player, she was actually my middle school band director back in the day,” Woodin said. “And our former commander (before Wenman) was my high school band director.”

Thirteen-year-old Sherlyn Estrada, who was staking out a space before the performance with her younger siblings, was looking forward to the concert.

“I also have an instrument of my own,” she said. “I play the clarinet.”

Holding the event on July 3 instead of the actual holiday put some people off, Coutts said, but it was necessary.

“We're limited by what availability our fireworks company has, because we hire a company to shoot them off,” he said. “And they are booked solid on the Fourth. It’s not something that we can control.”

In the past, the celebration has typically been held the Saturday before the Fourth, Coutts said, but this year that would have put the celebration in June, which the city felt was too early. 

“I look at (the July 3 date) kind of as a kickoff to everybody's Independence Day celebrations,” Coutts said. “We couldn't get the fireworks company on the fourth, so we got it on the third to get everybody kick-started. And if you can legally discharge fireworks at your house, you go right ahead and do that on the Fourth and good on you – enjoy your Independence Day.”

Joel Martin may be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.

    Sgt. Niko Woodin of the 133d Washington National Guard Band blows a solo tuba riff while warming up for the band’s performance at Moses Lake’s Red, White and Boom celebration Wednesday.
  

    Eight-year-old Sinead Estrada, left, and her brother Brandon Estrada, 10, watch the stage expectantly before the concert at Red, White and Boom Wednesday.