Latest news with #MosesLakeHighSchool
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Former Moses Lake pianist receives Finnish knighthood
Apr. 25—MOSES LAKE — A former Moses Lake man was recently honored with a knighthood in Finland. Collin Hansen, a 1975 graduate of Moses Lake High School, was awarded the Order of the Lion of Finland at a ceremony March 18. "It's an honor that every year ... the president (of Finland) awards certain members of society," Hansen said. "(It) was for my contribution to Finnish musical life and also, in my work at the university, helping a younger generation of musicians in Finland." Hansen, a highly-accomplished pianist specializing in chamber and vocal music, studied at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., and then took a master's degree at the prestigious Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, according to the committee that awarded him the honor. He has taught at the Sibelius Academy since 1987. "His inspiring student- and composition-oriented teaching has inspired entire generations of Finnish pianists, both at the Sibelius Academy and in numerous summer courses, to become enthusiastic about music," the committee wrote. Hansen's talent became obvious at an early age, according to his mother, Vonnie Hansen, who lives in Moses Lake. "From the time he could walk, he got up to the piano and touched the keys," Vonnie Hansen said. "By the time he was 4 years old, he was playing his Sunday school songs by ear. He started taking piano lessons in the first grade." The Order of the Lion of Finland was created in 1942 to recognize outstanding civilian or military conduct, according to the Finnish government's website. In addition to his teaching, Hansen is also the creative director of the LuomuLaulu, or Time of Music, Festival in Viitasaari, Finland. "We do concerts in granaries and barns, chamber music and lots of vocal music," he said. "We have massive classes and students come and live in people's guest houses. Central Finland is absolutely wonderful; it's a pristine part of the country on a lake. We've had famous opera singers and chamber musicians come. It's absolutely wonderful."
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
MLSD eighth graders begin preparing for high school
Feb. 20—MOSES LAKE — Vanguard Academy and Moses Lake High School students and staff spent time at Columbia Middle School on Wednesday sharing the programs and opportunities available for incoming freshmen. "The academic journey for our eighth grade students in the Moses Lake School District continued today with the first of three curriculum fairs that will take place at the middle schools here in the district today," MLSD Director of Public Relations Ryan Shannon said. "Staff from Vanguard Academy and Moses Lake High School spent some time at Columbia Middle School talking to eighth-graders and showcasing not only the academic programs but the athletics and activities and other opportunities that each building provides to its students and giving the eighth graders an opportunity to ask questions and learn about the various options that are available to them as they register for their upcoming ninth-grade year." On Thursday, staff and students will visit Frontier and Endeavor middle schools to offer a similar opportunity to students. Also on Thursday will be curriculum night, which is a chance for families and future students to tour the schools, meet teachers and ask questions. The event will be at Moses Lake High School from 6 to 7 p.m. and Vanguard Academy from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. "Curriculum night gives parents and eighth-graders an opportunity to tour the buildings, to actually get in and take a look at what the classrooms look like, take a look at the facilities, get a speak to staff and have a little bit more deeper conversation about what that freshman year looks like for them," Shannon said. Following these events there will be registration nights at MLSD where students will submit registration forms and meet with counselors and their preferred school. "Really, it's the first opportunity for some of these parents to have interactions with these buildings and the staff as well," Shannon said. "We all know that students have questions and so do parents, and this will give them an opportunity to interact with their respective staffs." MLHS will host its registration nights Feb. 24 for Columbia Middle School and Feb. 25 for Frontier and Endeavor Middle Schools at 4:30 p.m., 5.30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Vanguard Academy will host its registration nights Feb. 20 and Feb. 25 from 5:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. for all middle schools. Students who want to register for the Digital Learning Center will still have to register with either MLHS or Vanguard, according to Shannon. Students must attend at least one registration night. "Moses Lake School District offers three great high school options for our students: Moses Lake High School, your more traditional comprehensive high school; Vanguard Academy, which is a project-based innovative learning environment; and then our Digital Learning Center, our online self-paced program," Shannon said. More information about registering at MLHS is available at The page has course guides, information for Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center registration, Running Start information and new student enrollment details. For more information about registering at Vanguard Academy visit: The page features new student enrollment details, CBTECH registration and more information about Vanguard Academy. "It's important because we want students to see the options," Shannon said. "We want them to have a really deep understanding of all the different courses that are offered and to explore the programs because they're all unique. They're individual to their own buildings, and we want the parents and really the students to have that opportunity to take a look at everything that is available to them here in the Moses Lake School District."
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
A century of service
Feb. 18—MOSES LAKE — One of the most active service organizations in America is turning 100 this year, and most of its members haven't even turned 18. "Key Club is all about service and helping the community," said Pedro Lopez, who's the Key Club district governor for Moses Lake High School's chapter. There are also chapters at Vanguard Academy and Ephrata High School, he said. Key Club was started in 1925 by two Sacramento businessmen as an outreach of Kiwanis International, according to its online history. The idea was to take the "key boys" — and girls, after 1977 — in a school and guide them in serving their greater community. There's been a Key Club at Moses Lake High School since 1981, Said Louis Logan, the Kiwanis advisor for the Moses Lake High School chapter. It was started by a now-defunct chapter of the Kiwanis Club in Moses Lake and subsequently taken over by the remaining club. Key Club is mostly student-run but has adult advisors from both Kiwanis and the schools. "We try to attend their meetings, and if they need any assistance, making contacts or maybe providing treats or something like that, we try to do that," said Susan Blackwell, the Kiwanis advisor for the Vanguard Academy chapter. "If there's assistance that Kiwanis International can provide, like grants or something like that, we try to make that connection." Due to the Moses Lake School District's recent financial woes, the teacher advisors at Moses Lake High School and Vanguard Academy, Heather Whittall and Stephanie Lopez respectively, are both serving as unpaid volunteers, Logan said. "Without them, we would not have had Key Club this year," he said. Lopez said that key Club volunteers choose some of their own projects. At last year's Moses Lake Spring Festival, Key Club students provided scoring services for the event's 3-on-3 basketball tournament — a substantial job with 121 teams competing. "I went to the beginning meetings of Spring Fest where they talked about how they would run the event (and) how many volunteers they would need," Lopez said. "From there, I made Google forms, and then I sent out all that information to the officers of all the Key Clubs, and then I asked them, 'Hey, can you start promoting this event to your members?' Once all the events were promoted, people signed up, and then we managed to get around 40 volunteers over two days." For its services, the Spring Festival Committee presented the Key Club with a donation of $1,000, half of which went to New Hope in Moses Lake and the other half to the Pacific Northwest Key Club District's project to end youth homelessness, Lopez said. The Kiwanis also guide students toward projects, Blackwell said. "At Vanguard last year I had five or six committees," she said. "One was tutoring kids at an elementary school after school. One was working with the elderly. (There was) community cleanup, food bank, collecting materials for the animal outreach." Key Club students also help out the Kiwanis Club with its events, Logan said, working the concession booth at the Moses Lake Roundup Rodeo, and providing childcare at school Parent Teacher Organization meetings. While Key Club tends to attract students who already have a high degree of involvement, Logan said, the club is also always interested in students looking to get more involved. The club does charge dues to its members, he said, but for students who can't pay them Kiwanis picks up the tab. "We want to make sure that anybody that's interested in becoming a better leader, or learning leadership skills, and wants to do things for others (has the opportunity)," he said. "It's also a fellowship, friendship organization. In their meeting, they always start with what's called an icebreaker, some kind of fun thing that everybody just giggles and laughs and enjoys themselves. We also try to build friendships." There's a great deal of help to be offered. "We've found a lot of need in the community, people that need assistance, and we're trying to fill up anywhere in the gap," Lopez said. "You know, we're doing our best to help people, people within the Moses Lake community, within the Ephrata community, within our towns."
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
MLHS musicians shine at NCWMEA competition
Feb. 6—MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake High School choir, piano, guitar and band students showcased their musical talents at the North Central Washington Music Educators Association Regional Solo and Ensemble Competition held Saturday, Jan. 25, in Wenatchee. "It's so fun to see representation from so many different schools in the Columbia Basin area," MLHS Band Director Pablo Hernandez said. "There are always so many students from places that you would never expect. I think the event that we had this year was so great because there was so much excellence on display from so many different schools. It's a representation of the level of music education in our region. I think we all would like to think it is pretty high. The number of state qualifiers and kids that (had) superior and excellent ratings is a representation of that." David Holloway, the choir director at MLHS, expressed pride in the students' accomplishments and noted the significant turnout for the competition. "(It's) the largest number of students who have chosen to participate in this competition since before COVID," Holloway wrote in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald. Hernandez agreed, saying students are having to learn and rebuild after the pandemic. It's been a challenge that he is starting to see students overcome — especially in the recent competition. "For many of these students, their freshman year to now is really remarkable because they missed out on a really important part of their band experience as young band students," Hernandez said. "But now they are meeting and exceeding the standard that was set before them. I'm really proud of the kids for all the growth that they've been able to make throughout the last years because it's a process. All these kids work for a number of years to perform well at the competition. So I think that's the coolest part, is that in spite of having the pandemic and all of these crazy, wild things, the students are really achieving and keeping the standard that was set by Moses Lake students of the past and achieving success on their own." Competing against other students in the region, MLHS students achieved 16 excellent ratings and 24 superior ratings from the judges. Judges at the competition grade students on a scale of one to five. One is the highest-scoring students with a superior rating. Two is slightly lower scoring with excellent ratings. "We don't really talk to the kids that much about 'Okay, if you got a superior, you did well. If you got an excellent score, you did less well,'" Hernandez said. "But both of those are the highest scores that you can get, and so it's a really good indicator of the students' preparation that they went in and did really well." Superior ratings for students included Samantha Nelson, Emma Thompson, Divine Maltos and Baylee Bates. Excellent ratings from MLHS included Diego Rivera, Christian Hernandez, Alessandra Bermudez, Emma Thompson, Audrey Chesley, James Dekker, Hadlie Cox, Kallie Dale, James Dekker, Bradford Shelton, Alexis Preston and Griffin Johnson. "All of these musicians worked really hard to prepare their pieces with me for weeks leading up to the event, both during lunch and after school," Holloway wrote. "Although many have performed at this competition before, there were many first-timers as well, which is exciting." Those who qualified for state competitions in April include Pedro Balderas (baritone), Peter Martin (bass), Elijah Legault (guitar), James Dekker (soprano), Alli Hines, (soprano), Kaleb Stanberry (tenor), Molly Hanover (flute), Edwin Ulloa and Sparrow Skinner (small woodwinds), Cosmo Griffith Steele (trombone) and Sparrow Skinner (bassoon). "I've known all those students, most of them for a long time," Hernandez said. "I think the most inspiring part is that a lot of students have to overcome some significant personal challenges in order to deliver the great performances that they did. So that's why I would say to those kids that I'm really proud of them overcoming the challenges that are beyond the music and still delivering a great performance." Those who qualified as first alternatives for state include: Emree Andre (alto), Edwin Ulloa (piano), Dash Luiter (oboe), Molly Hanover and Baylee Bates (small woodwinds), Samantha Nelson (tenor saxophone), Ellie Villalobos (alto saxophone) and Kallie Dale (euphonium). Second alternatives for state include: Teagan Burns (flute), Julia Heaps (alto) Elisabela Villalobos (soprano) and Caitlin Penner and Jaeley McHargue (small ensemble). Holloway emphasized the importance of personal growth over competition results. "I really try to encourage my students to focus on the process and personal growth they make rather than the scores," Holloway wrote. "If they walk away feeling like they grew as a musician and gained more confidence in their voice and ability, that's what's important." The state competition is in Ellensburg on April 25-26.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Yahoo
Family seeks help in finding missing Moses Lake teen
Feb. 4—MOSES LAKE — The family of a missing Moses Lake teen is asking for help in finding him. Treyson Andrew Brooks, 15, was reported missing Jan. 24 in Vancouver, where he had been living in a group home, said his mother Amy Jackson. Brooks is about five feet, six inches tall, weighs about 180 pounds, and has black hair and brown eyes. Jackson said her son was a student at Moses Lake High School. He was receiving treatment through the Wraparound with Intensive Services program. The program is offered through Renew, Grant County's behavioral health providers. Brooks was referred to foster care in November at a home with parents experienced in caring for children with behavioral health issues, Jackson said. There was some delay in transferring the support services he was receiving. In January he was moved to the group home in Vancouver. Brooks experienced some behavioral issues at the group home, Jackson said, and eventually ran away. "He's never run away before," his mom said. Brooks was seen in Vancouver on Friday night and over the weekend. An alert was issued for him Sunday evening. He may be trying to return to Moses Lake, where he has lived all his life, his mom said. He may also be in the Portland area. Anyone with information on Brooks' whereabouts is asked to contact the Vancouver Police Department at 360-693-3111.
