Day of preparation before the Grant County Fair opens

MOSES LAKE — For the volunteers at the Covenant Christian School booth, the Grant County Fair started with a lesson in how to make smoothies. 

The fair starts today, and CCS students, staff and parent volunteers are running the fruit smoothie booth as a school fundraiser. Monday was the day to set up the displays, booths and tents, house the animals, enter exhibits and generally clean up those spaces that are used sparingly during the rest of the year. 

The booth was packed with parents, staff and CCS elementary and high school students. Principal Desiree Sept said CCS does use a lot of its equipment year-round, but a test run is never a bad idea.

“We can sell to the kids that are here setting up for the fair, and all the other vendors. But we use today for training, so everyone that comes and works in our booth gets to find out how we work it, make sure we work out all the kinks,” Sept said.

While putting the smoothie machine through its paces, Holly Pugh, CCS administrative assistant, also passed on some advice. Newbies will find it easier to make the lemonade, she said, and don’t let the counters get sticky. Bees, as it happens, like a sweet smoothie just as much as humans.

 It required a couple of tries to set up the “big tent” that houses local nonprofits. Shawn Cardwell, director of Columbia Basin Allied Arts, said it’s a new idea that’s designed to use the opportunity provided by the fair to its best advantage.

“We invited nonprofits from all over Grant County to come and spend a couple of days with the public, have their marketing promotional material out the whole time, and we're right by Red Gate, so you can't miss us,” Cardwell said.

It’s a joint project spearheaded by CBAA and Care Moses Lake. 

“We had been doing Community Day, which is just one day, and we didn’t feel like it was enough,” she said. “But the Commercial Building is a really big commitment, and also it fills up really fast. So we decided to pivot to this really fantastic spot (near the gate).”

The tent was a challenge – it was new to the setup crew, who usually get assistance from Columbia Basin Job Corps students. But in 2026 they were working the fire lines, and they were missed, Cardwell said.

The setup crew at the Ephrata Lions food booth were mostly experienced hands and had the ice machine up and running before 11 a.m. Volunteers worked throughout the weekend sprucing up the booth with, among other things, a new paint job on the interior. 

It wasn’t the ice machine but the cash register that was a challenge on Monday. It allows the booth to accept debit and credit cards – but there was a glitch, in the form of a 4% fee for card sales. Sue Franck was trying to make the math work. 

“The way it is set up, it only takes your number and deducts 4%. Well, if I add 4% to $5, it’s going to come out at $5.20. But if take $5.20 and deduct 4%, it’s going to come out at $4.99,” Franck said. 

Since the goal was to keep the transaction as simple as possible for the buyer as well as the seller, those stray pennies were a problem.

“Last year, I figured out the formula, and just plugged in the numbers,” she said. “This year, I can’t come up with the formula.”

Franck and her grandson Chandler Davis eventually hit upon the answer. 

Franck is a volunteer not affiliated with the Lions, and she said getting volunteers is always a challenge, an observation echoed by Karin Buchmann, a Lions member on the setup team. 

“Do we have enough to start with? Yes. Could we use more? Always,” she said.

    Avery Getzinger prepares entries in the flower barn. The Grant County Fair starts today.