Last week’s Quincy Valley Chamber of Commerce Membership Appreciation Event was supposed to be a night for the Chamber to thank its members. But when four awards were handed out, the evening also became a reminder of how much of what holds the 98848 together happens quietly, long before anyone stands at a podium to recognize it.

TL;DR

• Marie Weinand Rylaarsdam was named Volunteer of the Year for years of service to the Quincy Valley Chamber of Commerce, including regularly staffing its front desk and helping at Chamber events.

• Joanna Santana, a business and marketing educator at Quincy High School, was named Teacher of the Year for her investment in students and efforts to connect classroom learning with real-world opportunities.

• Quincy Community Health Center received Business of the Year recognition for its healthcare services, accessibility efforts, community outreach and work with the Quincy Student Health and Wellness Center.

• Yesenia James was posthumously honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for more than a decade of work with local youth, including helping establish Quincy’s Special Olympics program.

• The awards were presented during the Chamber’s Membership Appreciation Event last week, but the work being recognized reaches well beyond the Chamber itself.

An Appreciation Night Became Something More

The Quincy Valley Chamber of Commerce gathered members last week at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites for its Membership Appreciation Event. The evening included food, flowers, music and an opportunity for the organization to thank the businesses and people who support its work.

But when the awards began, the focus widened beyond the event itself.

Volunteer of the Year, Teacher of the Year, Business of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award each recognized a different kind of contribution to the Quincy Valley. Taken together, the recipients offered a snapshot of community service that is easy to overlook because much of it happens quietly and over long periods of time.

The Chamber solicited nominations ahead of the event, asking community members to explain not simply who should receive an award, but why. Those nominations provide a look at the work behind the recognition and, in several cases, work that has been taking place for years.

Marie Rylaarsdam: The Value of Showing Up

There are volunteer jobs that happen in front of a crowd, and there are others that consist mostly of being there when someone needs you. Marie Weinand Rylaarsdam’s recognition as Volunteer of the Year came largely from the second kind.

Rylaarsdam has volunteered with the Chamber for several years and regularly works its front desk on Wednesdays, greeting visitors, answering questions and helping keep the office operating. According to the Chamber’s recognition of her, she is also present at nearly every Chamber event, helping with setup and wherever else she is needed.

When asked what keeps bringing her back, according to the Chamber, Rylaarsdam’s answer is simple: she loves it, and she loves her community. Her award recognizes the kind of volunteer service built less around one major accomplishment than the decision to keep showing up, week after week and event after event.

Joanna Santana: A Quincy Student Comes Home to Teach

Teacher of the Year Joanna Santana teaches business and marketing at Quincy High School. Before she became a Quincy educator, however, Santana sat on the other side of the classroom as a Quincy student herself.

Her nomination describes an educator whose work extends beyond the traditional school calendar. Santana uses summer months to prepare and strengthen curriculum and develop learning experiences before students return to class. Her background in marketing, creativity and business allows her to connect classroom education with practical, real-world opportunities intended to build students’ confidence and prepare them for their futures.

Her nominator described Santana as intentional, innovative and deeply invested in student success. The nomination also specifically points to her decision to return to the community that helped shape her, describing it as an example of both the lasting impact of local education and the importance of giving back.

That makes Santana’s recognition more than the story of what happens inside her classroom today. Quincy invested in a student who eventually returned as an educator, and another generation of students is now learning from the experience she brought back with her.

Quincy Community Health Center: Removing Barriers to Care

The Business of the Year award went to Quincy Community Health Center, whose nomination focused both on the range of healthcare available locally and the organization’s efforts to make that care accessible.

The health center provides medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy, maternity support, WIC and same-day services, along with extended weekday and Saturday hours. Its nomination emphasized that cost, insurance status, language and cultural differences can become barriers between residents and healthcare. The center provides eligibility assistance, multilingual support and a sliding-fee discount program based on income and family size.

Its work also extends outside the clinic. Outreach staff and Promotoras de Salud connect residents with healthcare, education, resources and support throughout the community. The nomination specifically pointed to the Quincy Student Health and Wellness Center at Quincy High School, a partnership with the Quincy School District that gives students convenient access to medical and behavioral health services while reducing time away from class.

Together, those programs put the health center’s work in places throughout the 98848 where residents already live, work and attend school. The nomination presents accessibility not simply as having healthcare available in Quincy, but as helping residents overcome some of the practical obstacles that can keep them from using it.

Yesenia James: A Legacy Built Around Belonging

The final recognition of the evening carried a different weight.

Yesenia James died in February 2026, but the work that led to her Lifetime Achievement Award continues in the children, families and programs she helped along the way.

According to the nomination submitted by Cari Horning, James spent more than a decade giving her time to young people in the Quincy Valley. That included approximately a decade supporting and coaching youth soccer before she helped build Quincy’s Special Olympics program from the ground up.

Her family’s own experience helped shape that work. Inspired in part by her son and her family’s experience with Noonan syndrome, James understood personally the importance of inclusion, patience and opportunity for children with different needs. She and her husband, Joseph, helped establish a local Special Olympics team so children and families would not have to leave their own community to find a place where they could participate and belong.

Creating that opportunity required much more than deciding Quincy needed a team. The nomination describes fundraising, recruiting, organization, practices, travel and countless hours required to build a program from nothing. More important to James, according to Horning, was giving athletes the opportunity to discover what they could accomplish when someone was willing to teach them, encourage them and believe in them.

Horning described James as direct, strong, loving and deeply committed to doing what was right for children. She was also someone who had little patience when inequity meant a child was being overlooked. When James saw something missing in the community, the nomination says, she did not simply point it out. She worked to create it.

Her Lifetime Achievement Award recognized work whose impact did not end with her death. The local programs she helped establish, the athletes she encouraged and the families who found opportunities closer to home remain part of the community she served.

The Work Before the Recognition

The Chamber’s Membership Appreciation Event gave members an opportunity to gather and celebrate another year together. For a few minutes during that evening, it also put public attention on work that often happens without it.

Rylaarsdam’s recognition grew from years of Wednesdays and community events. Santana’s grew from the work of preparing students for opportunities beyond the classroom. Quincy Community Health Center’s reflected an effort to bring healthcare within reach of more local residents. James’ Lifetime Achievement Award recognized years spent creating opportunities for children and families, including a program that remains after her death.

Horning ended her nomination of James with a description of the example she believed James left behind: see the need, welcome everyone, do the work and always put the kids first.

Those words were written about Yesenia James, and her story remains uniquely her own. But last week’s awards offered four different examples of what can happen when someone sees a place where they can contribute and chooses to keep showing up.

That work does not always happen where the rest of us can see it. Last week, for one evening, four examples of it were brought into view; recognition for work throughout the 98848 that began long before their names were called.

For a few minutes Saturday afternoon, I stopped thinking like a reporter.

I was standing on a rocky terrace high above the Columbia River, with the water far below us and miles of the Gorge stretching into the distance. After days of smoke across the 98848, the sky had opened into blue, the air was clear, and orchestral music was moving through a natural amphitheater that had been carved into the landscape long before anyone thought about putting a stage there. There was no concert hall around us. No walls. No ceiling. Just basalt, sagebrush, wind, sky and music.

And I thought about my dad.

He has been gone for several years now, but I could picture him sitting there beside me as clearly as if another chair had been pulled up. My father loved music, beauty and big ideas, and I knew exactly what he would have done in that place. He would have stayed. He would have listened for hours. He would have watched the Columbia below us and the cliffs beyond it while the music filled a space no human being had designed.

It was a deeply personal thought in the middle of what was supposed to be a reporting assignment, but looking back, I think that moment may have explained The Hilltop Above the Columbia better than any presentation I heard during the next several hours.

Vince and Carol Bryan have an enormous idea for this piece of land outside Quincy. They envision a cultural campus where arts, science, environment and human experience are deliberately brought together rather than separated; where a world-class performer might take the stage one night, a scientist might challenge an audience with a new idea the next, and someday a Quincy student might walk onto that same stage for a school production. The permanent venues are not there yet. Much of what visitors saw Saturday still exists as rock, stakes, architectural renderings and an ambitious plan.

But on August 22, during the inaugural SOAR Festival, Vince and Carol attempted something more difficult than explaining what they hope to build.

They tried to let us experience it.

Over the course of roughly 11 hours, my wife, Sarah, and I moved from ancient rock formations and conversations about geology and architecture to science and technology, dinner overlooking the Columbia, the Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra, Broadway performers, and finally an extraordinary nighttime performance by David Foster & Friends with Katharine McPhee. The official program described the day as supporting a mission rooted in “arts, culture, science, nature, and community.” On paper, those can sound like four or five very different ideas competing for space in one very ambitious project.

By the time the final song faded Saturday night, they did not feel separate anymore.

That is the part I have struggled to explain since Sunday.

I can tell you who performed. I can describe the buildings that are planned. I can tell you what the architects said, what Vince and Carol hope this place becomes, and what happened hour by hour. Those are the easy parts of this story.

The difficult part is explaining what it felt like when all of those pieces came together when a place that largely does not exist yet briefly felt as though it already did.

To understand that, we have to go back to where Saturday really began.

Not at the concert stage.

In a hole in the ground.

TL;DR

• The inaugural SOAR Festival on Saturday, August 22, offered the first full-scale glimpse of what Vince and Carol Bryan envision for The Hilltop Above the Columbia, bringing arts, science, environment and human experience together over an approximately 11-hour day.

• Guests were introduced to plans for The Grotto, an intimate indoor performance and gathering space being designed around a naturally occurring rock formation, and The Terraces, an outdoor amphitheater shaped by the existing landscape overlooking the Columbia River.

• Architects working on The Grotto described a venue intended to accommodate everything from symphonies and theater to lectures, educational programs, community productions and banquets while preserving the surrounding geology and pursuing ambitious sustainability goals.

• The afternoon included a science and technology presentation from Whooshh Innovations, demonstrating how The Hilltop’s different areas of focus are intended to overlap rather than operate independently.

• Evening performances featured the Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra, Broadway performers Mari Nelson and Alexander Kilian, and David Foster & Friends with Katharine McPhee, with the Wenatchee Valley Symphony joining Foster’s performance.

• The permanent Hilltop campus remains an ambitious project still under development. But SOAR accomplished something architectural renderings alone cannot: for one day, guests were able to experience what the larger idea might actually feel like.

A Dream That Is Still Mostly Rock

To understand how Saturday ended, you first have to understand where it began.

My wife, Sarah, and I arrived at Cave B Estate Winery shortly before lunchtime with considerably more anticipation than we normally bring to an assignment. I had previously sat down with Vince and Carol Bryan and heard them explain their plans for The Hilltop Above the Columbia and even walked the site with them. I had seen the concepts and heard the philosophy. I knew they were talking about something much larger than another concert venue overlooking the Columbia River.

But there is an enormous difference between understanding an idea and experiencing one.

After checking in, guests gathered near the pond at Cave B before boarding shuttles for the short trip across the property. There were people from our local community, visitors from the west side of the Cascades and others who had traveled considerably farther. Conversations started between people who knew one another and people who had only just met. For me, one of the first noticeable changes was considerably simpler: I stopped checking my phone.

That may sound insignificant, but in hindsight it wasn’t.

We were only about 20 minutes from home, yet the pace of the day already felt removed from everyday life. The smoke that had covered much of the region in the preceding days had largely cleared. The sky was blue. A breeze moved across the property. The vineyard, the cliffs and the Columbia seemed to operate on a different clock than the emails, notifications and unfinished work waiting back in Quincy.

Then the shuttle deposited us in a hole in the ground.

Calling The Grotto a hole in the ground sounds dismissive until you stand inside it. In reality, the unusual depression in the rock is one of the discoveries around which much of The Hilltop’s current design has been organized.

Vince told the group that he and a worker began excavating the area roughly two and a half years ago. Across most of the top of the rock formation, he said, the soil is only about half an inch deep. Here, they dug approximately 15 feet without encountering even a pebble. They eventually moved outward until reaching rock roughly 47½ feet away, revealing what appeared to be an almost circular formation.

Instead of deciding what building they wanted and then forcing the landscape to accommodate it, the Bryans began asking a different question.

What was the landscape already asking them to build?

That question is important because The Grotto did not appear in isolation. Vince told guests that a theater district had been contemplated as part of a master plan dating to 2006. The discovery of this formation eventually convinced Vince and Carol that the indoor theater belonged here.

It also established one of the governing principles for everything that followed Saturday.

The Hilltop is not supposed to conquer this landscape.

It is supposed to listen to it.

When the Environment Becomes the Architecture

That philosophy creates an unusual assignment for an architect.

Representatives of ZGF Architects, selected through a design competition to work on the project, stood with guests inside the future Grotto and discussed what it means to design a sophisticated cultural venue in a place where one of the fundamental instructions is essentially: disturb as little as possible.

One architect described his first visit as a mixture of awe and uncertainty. The question wasn’t simply how to construct a building there. It was what they should touch, what they shouldn’t touch, what should remain visible and how architecture could be introduced without overwhelming the reason people would want to come there in the first place.

Another described the emerging building almost like a thunderegg, he even brought one to explain it, tough and rock-like on the outside, but containing something unexpected within. The goal, he explained, is for the architecture to respond naturally to the site while creating a place for discovery, art and ideas.

One phrase used during the presentation captured the approach particularly well:

The environment is the structure.

That creates practical problems as well as beautiful ideas.

The architects discussed solar generation, careful water use and reuse, native or appropriate landscaping, healthier building materials and methods of stitching the eventual structure into the existing landscape. They are considering whether the building could generate enough energy to support its operation across multiple performances and how water could be processed and reused rather than simply discharged.

Then there is the considerably harder question of what happens inside.

The Grotto is being envisioned as a roughly 1,200-seat venue capable of hosting remarkably different kinds of events. A symphony has different acoustic requirements than a speaker. Theater presents different demands than a banquet. Jazz is different again. Educational programs add another layer.

When asked how all of that would be packed into one building, one of the architects gave perhaps the most reassuring answer possible at this stage of a project this ambitious.

He said they didn’t know yet.

That wasn’t uncertainty masquerading as confidence. It was an acknowledgment of the complexity of what is being attempted. The design team still has work to do on acoustics, theater systems, operations and the business case necessary to make the venue function over time. Specialized acoustic and theater consultants are expected to be involved. The goal is not simply to create a beautiful room, but a room performers would want to visit, potentially record in, and return to because of how well it works.

Even the direction people look is part of the discussion.

There is the obvious view outward toward the Columbia and the surrounding landscape. There is the view downward toward ancient rock, lichen and tiny details most of us normally walk past without noticing. Then the architects realized there was another direction.

Up.

Early renderings contemplate an architectural opening toward the sky, introducing astronomy and the night above the Columbia into a building already intended to connect its visitors with what surrounds them. The idea sounds almost extravagant until you stand there and realize that the sky is every bit as much a part of this landscape as the basalt underneath your feet.

It was becoming clear that The Hilltop’s architecture wasn’t really the most important thing we were being shown.

The important thing was what Vince and Carol hoped would happen to people once they got there.

Getting Out of the Silos

Vince Bryan spent much of his professional life in neurosurgery, and his explanation for The Hilltop repeatedly returned to something he learned far away from concert stages and vineyards.

Silos are limiting.

Specialists become very good at looking deeply into their own disciplines. Scientists talk to scientists. Artists talk to artists. Technologists talk to technologists. Each field develops its own language, assumptions and ways of looking at the world.

Vince became interested in what happens when people start looking into one another’s silos instead.

He recalled an earlier gathering that brought together accomplished people from science, technology and the liberal arts. The early conversations were contentious enough that participants were effectively arguing that they didn’t need the other disciplines. After roughly 48 hours together, however, Vince said something different had emerged: there was value in bringing those worlds together.

That idea eventually became central to The Hilltop.

The project identifies four areas: Arts, Science, Environment and Human Experience but the more important idea is not the individual categories. It is what might happen at their intersections.

Vince illustrated the point Saturday with a story that may have explained the entire project better than any architectural rendering could.

Years ago, a string program was being held on the property and faculty members were preparing to perform for students and their families. Just before the performance began, a tall cowboy walked through the back door. Vince described the man’s hat, vest, string tie, buckle and boots in enough detail that it was easy to picture him, including Vince’s initial suspicion that the man had wandered into the wrong room.

Then the musicians began to play.

Vince watched the man react to the sound of the cello. He leaned forward. At the end of the movement, he stood and applauded enthusiastically. It happened again through the performance. At the end, the cowboy offered his own exuberant response before walking back out the door.

Vince could not know what happened after that man left. None of us can.

But for a few minutes, someone had encountered something beautiful that appeared to be completely new to him.

That, Vince explained, is what exposure can do.

It also helps explain why the Bryans talk as enthusiastically about a child seeing a performance for the first time as they do about attracting internationally recognized artists and thinkers.

The goal isn’t simply to put impressive people on a stage.

It is to create opportunities for somebody in the audience to discover something they did not know they loved.

A World Stage That Still Belongs to Home

That distinction matters in the 98848.

It would be easy to hear phrases like “world-class cultural destination” and assume The Hilltop is being designed primarily for people who will fly into Washington, attend an event overlooking the Columbia and leave again. The history of the neighboring Gorge Amphitheatre makes international tourism more than an abstract possibility.

Vince reminded the group Saturday that the original amphitheater began much more modestly.

The Bryans had planted grapes and needed people to come to the winery. For its grand opening, they planned to have the Wenatchee Brass Band perform while the mayor of George cut a ribbon. There was one problem: the Kentucky bluegrass planted around the winery had failed to germinate in the August heat.

Rather than welcome guests into a cloud of dust, the family and vineyard workers moved the event.

Vince described working around the clock, using irrigation materials and a backhoe to carve terraces into another portion of the property. That improvised gathering place became the beginning of the Gorge Amphitheatre.

The scale of what followed is now part of the identity of this corner of Grant County. The Gorge grew from a small local gathering place into one of the most recognizable outdoor music venues in the country.

Vince used that history Saturday to make a larger point. A place does not have to be in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York or Chicago to matter. He described this landscape not as being in “the middle of nowhere,” but “the middle of everywhere.”

But The Hilltop is not intended to become another Gorge.

In many respects, the Bryans are deliberately moving in the opposite direction.

Where the Gorge became enormous, The Hilltop is being designed around intimacy. Where tens of thousands of people can disappear into the scale of a major concert at the Gorge, The Grotto is intended to put audiences close to performers, speakers and one another.

Most importantly for Quincy and the surrounding communities, the Bryans are talking about local people using it too.

During the architectural presentation, the possibilities ranged from classical musicians and internationally known speakers to local schools staging Peter Pan or The Nutcracker. Vince spoke about educational opportunities. Church groups were mentioned. Community participation was not discussed as an afterthought to the “real” programming; it was discussed as part of what the building has to be capable of supporting.

That may ultimately become one of the most consequential tests of The Hilltop.

It is one thing to create a destination people will cross oceans to experience.

It is something else to create that destination while making sure the kid growing up a few miles away understands that the stage belongs to them, too.

Saturday afternoon, we began to see what that might look like.

And once again, it happened before the building existed.

For One Afternoon, the Future Appeared

From The Grotto, we walked through the surrounding landscape toward The Terraces.

There was no finished performance venue waiting for us. What existed was something much older: a naturally formed set of terraces descending toward an open area that already resembles a stage, with the Columbia River and the Gorge beyond it.

Chairs had been positioned along the terraces.

Music began to play.

And that was where, for me, everything we had been hearing stopped being conceptual.

The sound moved through the natural formation while the landscape remained completely present around it. There was no need for a screen showing the Columbia because the Columbia was there. No theatrical backdrop was required to create scale. The cliffs, river, sky and distance had already taken care of that.

This was where I found myself thinking about my father.

It was also where I began to understand why Vince had spent so much time earlier talking about exposure.

You could show somebody a rendering of The Terraces. You could give them dimensions and seating capacities. You could explain acoustics. You could put together an impressive presentation about the Columbia River Gorge.

None of those things would recreate sitting there.

And before there was much time to absorb it, the day shifted again.

We returned toward The Grotto for a presentation from Whooshh Innovations focused on technology designed to help move fish through river systems. It was precisely the kind of transition that would have seemed strange almost anywhere else.

One minute, orchestral music overlooking the Columbia.

The next, fish passage technology.

Yet that apparent mismatch was the point.

Earlier we had heard Vince talk about getting people out of their silos. Now the festival itself was doing it to us. The same place intended to make room for musicians and actors was making room for engineers, scientists and environmental questions. The subject wasn’t included as an interruption between artistic performances. It belonged there because The Hilltop’s premise is that those conversations become more interesting when they stop being kept apart.

Later in the same presentation, that idea was pushed even further when the substance of the presentation was transformed into a professionally produced pop song, demonstrating what can happen when information and music are deliberately combined.

By late afternoon, the four ideas we had heard repeated; Arts, Science, Environment and Human Experience were beginning to feel less like words attached to a project.

We had spent several hours moving through them. What we had not experienced yet was what would happen when all four converged at once.

For that, we had to wait until the sun began to go down.

When the Sun Went Down, the Idea Changed

By the time we returned from the afternoon presentations for dinner, Vince and Carol Bryan had given us a fairly complete intellectual explanation of The Hilltop. We had stood inside the future Grotto and heard architects discuss a building that would have to accommodate performances, lectures, education and community events without overwhelming the ancient landscape surrounding it. We had walked through the rocks, sat in The Terraces with music moving through the natural formation and listened to a presentation about science and technology. Arts, science, environment and human experience had been repeated throughout the day as the four ideas around which The Hilltop is being organized.

We understood the concept. What we had not yet experienced was what might happen when all of those ideas began occupying the same moment.

Guests returned to Vince and Carol’s home for dinner on the lawn overlooking the Columbia before making their way to Stage B at Cave B Estate Winery for the evening performances. According to the official SOAR program, the Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra was scheduled to begin at 7:15 p.m., followed by Broadway performances from Mari Nelson and Alexander Kilian, a message from The Hilltop, and David Foster & Friends with Katharine McPhee closing the festival from 9 to 11 p.m. It was an impressive lineup for the inaugural event, but simply listing the performers misses much of what made the next several hours work.

The Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra took the stage first, and I have to admit that before SOAR, I did not know we had symphonic music of this caliber so close to home. I have heard symphonic music all my life, as almost everyone has, but mostly through recordings, movies and television. We sometimes forget how much of the music that gives our favorite films their scale, tension, emotion and sense of wonder originated with musicians sitting together in a room and creating that sound with actual instruments.

Hearing a full symphony in person strips away that distance. You can watch the strings move together, hear the brass enter behind them, feel percussion rather than simply hear it and begin to recognize how dozens of individual musicians become one instrument. When the orchestra performed the unmistakable opening associated with 2001: A Space Odyssey, the audience responded immediately. People applauded and called out as something deeply familiar suddenly arrived with the weight and dimension that only a live orchestra can give it.

Sitting there, I thought back to the story Vince had told earlier in The Grotto about the cowboy who apparently wandered into a classical performance years ago and encountered the sound of a cello in a way Vince believed he never had before. Vince remembered watching the man lean forward as he listened and then leap to his feet applauding at the end of the movement. The story wasn’t really about classical music. It was about what can happen when someone is exposed to something outside the boundaries of their normal experience.

Only a few hours after hearing that story, I was having a smaller version of the same realization. I had lived here for years without really knowing what the Wenatchee Valley Symphony could do, and before their performance was over, I was already thinking about bringing my daughters to hear them. That is the kind of outcome Vince had been describing all afternoon. Nobody had to convince me that I should appreciate a symphony. The opportunity to experience a good one is all the convincing I needed. They played through multiple genres of songs that most people recognized from movies whether they had known it was symphonic music or not.

The Gorge Became Part of the Performance

The orchestra would have been impressive inside a traditional concert hall, but there was another participant in the performance Saturday evening that no conductor controlled. As the Wenatchee Valley Symphony played, the sun began its descent beyond the Cascades and the Columbia River Gorge changed around us.

The bright afternoon gradually softened into evening. Light shifted across the cliffs, the sky changed with it, and the music continued while daylight slowly disappeared. There was no curtain and no carefully designed theatrical transition between scenes because the landscape was creating one of its own. The Columbia, the cliffs, the sky and the orchestra were all competing for your attention, yet somehow none of them seemed to take anything away from the others.

This is where describing SOAR becomes difficult without slipping into exaggeration. The sunset was beautiful. The music was beautiful. The vineyard was beautiful. The Gorge was beautiful. Those statements are all true, but they reduce an experience to a collection of adjectives. What made the moment remarkable was the way those separate things worked together. You could watch the changing light, hear the orchestra and feel the evening air at the same time, until eventually it became difficult to separate the music from the setting in which you were hearing it.

Earlier, Arts, Science, Environment and Human Experience had been presented as the four Waypoints behind The Hilltop. Sitting there as the sun dropped behind a live symphony, at least three of those ideas no longer required explanation. The environment wasn’t scenery placed behind the performance. It was participating in it. The art wasn’t isolated inside a building. It changed the way we experienced the landscape. The human experience was whatever was happening individually among the people sitting there as those two things came together.

For me, that connection had already happened earlier in The Terraces when the music and landscape unexpectedly brought my father to mind. Now, as evening arrived around an entire audience, I began to understand how deliberately Vince and Carol were trying to create opportunities for those kinds of connections. They cannot determine what someone will feel when they encounter a performance, an idea or the landscape. What they can do is create a place where the possibility exists.

Questions That Music and Theater Ask Differently

The evening shifted again when Broadway performers Mari Nelson and Alexander Kilian followed the symphony. Nelson and Kilian performed separately and together, bringing the human voice and theatrical storytelling into a day that had already included geology, architecture, environmental technology and orchestral music.

Their performances also helped clarify something that can sound abstract when The Hilltop is described only as a place where arts and sciences will meet. Science gives us extraordinarily powerful tools for asking what something is, how it works and what caused it. The arts often approach a different set of questions: what something means to us, why it matters and what it feels like to experience the parts of life that cannot be adequately described through measurements alone.

Those approaches do not have to compete with each other. In fact, much of Vince’s argument throughout the day was that we lose something when we insist that they remain separated. Earlier, he had talked about the limitations created when specialists remain inside their own silos and the possibilities that emerge when they begin looking into someone else’s. SOAR was beginning to function as a practical demonstration of that idea.

Viewed only as a schedule, the day should have felt disjointed. A presentation about fish passage technology does not naturally lead to Broadway. Ancient geology, architecture, symphonic music and discussions about human purpose do not ordinarily occupy the same program. Yet after several hours of moving between them, the contrasts started to feel intentional rather than strange. The festival wasn’t asking us to choose between those interests. It was asking what might happen when curiosity in one area leads us toward another.

That idea had been demonstrated particularly well earlier in the day when information from a presentation was transformed into a professionally produced pop song, using music to communicate the same ideas through an entirely different part of the human experience. By the time Nelson and Kilian finished, The Hilltop’s four Waypoints were becoming less useful as separate categories because the boundaries between them were already beginning to disappear.

Then the evening turned toward popular music, and something happened beside me that brought the entire idea down to the scale of one person’s life.

The Soundtrack We Carry With Us

David Foster’s name is familiar to a lot of people. His body of work is considerably more familiar.

Consider just a small piece of the catalog he has helped write, arrange or produce: Earth, Wind & Fire’s “After the Love Has Gone,” Chicago’s “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” and “You’re the Inspiration,” Peter Cetera’s “Glory of Love,” John Parr’s “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion),” Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing” and her recording of “I Will Always Love You,” Celine Dion’s “Because You Loved Me” and “The Power of Love,” Toni Braxton’s “Un-Break My Heart,” and “The Prayer,” recorded by Dion and Andrea Bocelli.

His credits extend far beyond those songs, through work with artists including Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, Josh Groban, Michael Bublé, Andrea Bocelli, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. Foster has won 16 Grammy Awards, including three as Producer of the Year, and his work has helped shape records and soundtracks that have collectively sold hundreds of millions of copies.

Before the headlining performance began, the audience watched a montage of music connected to Foster’s career. Songs and performers moved across decades, and as they did, Sarah was recognizing one after another. She has followed Foster’s work for years and knew considerably more about his career than I did, but even she seemed surprised by what happened when so much of it was assembled in one place.

As the montage continued, she leaned toward me and said that what we were hearing had been the soundtrack of her childhood, adolescence and young adult life.

That explained Foster’s career better than a list of awards or production credits could have in that moment. The music wasn’t important merely because it had been commercially successful. For people in the audience, those songs were attached to years of their lives. They belonged to movies they remembered, relationships, celebrations, difficult seasons, long drives, school years and versions of themselves that existed decades ago.

Music has an unusual ability to do that. A melody can remain somewhere in the background of memory for years, and then a few notes can suddenly return a person to a place, a relationship or a period of life with surprising clarity. Sarah wasn’t simply recognizing songs. She was recognizing pieces of her own history.

That was Human Experience, not as an institutional concept or a line on a presentation, but sitting in the chair next to me.

It also brought me back to what had happened earlier in The Terraces. My connection had been different. Music and landscape had made me think about my father and how much he would have loved sitting there. Sarah’s connection was to decades of songs that had accompanied her through different stages of life. Around us were hundreds of other people carrying memories and associations of their own.

A performer can play the same song for an entire audience, but there may be hundreds of different experiences of that song taking place at the same time.

David Foster & Friends

When David Foster & Friends finally took the stage, one of the surprises was how quickly the evening became funny.

After everything that had come before it; the presentations, the larger ideas, the symphony and Broadway performances the headlining show could easily have become overly formal. Instead, Foster and his wife, Katharine McPhee, brought humor and an easy chemistry to the stage. Stories and jokes filled the spaces between songs, and the interaction between them made the performance feel considerably more intimate than the résumés of the people onstage might suggest.

Daniel Emmet joined them during the performance, adding another distinctive voice to an evening that had already moved through several musical styles. Foster, McPhee and Emmet performed songs from across Foster’s long career, while the audience repeatedly recognized music that had been part of popular culture for decades. People laughed, sang along and responded to familiar openings before some songs had fully developed.

Behind them sat the Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra.

That detail deserves attention because the orchestra’s role changed during the course of the evening. They had begun as one of the featured performances on the SOAR program. Later, they became part of David Foster & Friends itself. According to my notes from the performance, Foster told the audience that this version of the show had not previously been performed with a full orchestra, and the Wenatchee Valley Symphony stepped into that role for the night.

For a community story, that may be one of the most satisfying details of the entire evening. Musicians from our region were not simply there to warm up the crowd before nationally and internationally recognized performers took over the stage. They were part of the headlining performance, adding the depth of a full symphony to music many people in the audience had known for much of their lives.

The combination also reinforced something Vince had said earlier about wanting The Hilltop to remain intimate. The Gorge Amphitheatre has become extraordinary partly because of its scale. Tens of thousands of people sharing one performance can generate an energy that a small room could never reproduce. Vince and Carol are not trying to duplicate that experience. They are imagining something much closer, where the relationship between performer, audience and place operates differently.

Stage B was standing in for a future venue Saturday night, but the principle was already apparent. Foster could talk to the audience rather than simply perform in front of it. Humor could travel through the crowd. People could respond to a story, recognize a song and feel connected to the personalities onstage. The power of the evening wasn’t created by making everything bigger. Much of it came from making the distance feel smaller.

When the Pieces Stopped Feeling Separate

By the final portion of the concert, I had largely stopped trying to keep track of which part of The Hilltop’s mission we were supposed to be experiencing.

That may have been the clearest evidence that the idea was working.

The environment had never left. Even after darkness settled over the property, the Columbia River Gorge remained the place surrounding us. Science and technology had been part of the afternoon. Architecture had been discussed not merely as a way of constructing buildings, but as a way of preserving and directing people’s attention toward the natural world. The arts had moved from orchestral music to Broadway and then across decades of popular music.

Human experience had been threaded through all of it. It was in the cowboy from Vince’s story discovering the sound of a cello. It was in my thoughts about my father at The Terraces. It was in my decision that I wanted my daughters to hear the Wenatchee Valley Symphony. It was in Sarah hearing pieces of her life in David Foster’s catalog, and it was in the laughter, singing and recognition moving through the audience as the night continued.

Many of those moments were particularly grand by itself. The Hilltop’s ambition to bring them all together is enormous, but its success will eventually be measured one person at a time. A world-class building cannot make someone curious. A famous performer cannot guarantee inspiration. An architect cannot design an emotional response into a seat. They can only create conditions in which discovery and connection have a chance to happen.

Saturday offered an early test of those conditions.

The permanent Grotto has not been built. The Terraces remain largely a natural formation rather than a completed performance venue. The larger Hilltop campus remains a combination of land, plans, architectural work, fundraising and a great deal of construction still ahead. The architects themselves were candid that some of the difficult questions surrounding acoustics, operations and flexibility remain to be solved.

SOAR therefore could not prove that The Hilltop will ultimately become everything Vince and Carol envision. An inaugural festival cannot answer questions that will require years of design, fundraising, construction, programming and operation to resolve.

What it could test was the idea underneath all of that infrastructure: whether science, art, environment and human experience could be intentionally brought together without the result feeling forced.

For 11 hours Saturday, they were.

If This Was the Beginning

Eventually, David Foster & Friends reached the final song and an unusually long day began coming to an end.

People around us started gathering their belongings and talking about what they had just experienced. Sarah had spent much of the day documenting it through photographs and video while I had spent mine listening, taking notes and trying to understand what I was seeing. Normally, by the end of an event, I already have some idea of the story I am going to write.

This time, I didn’t.

I remained in my seat for a while trying to sort through it. I knew the evening performance had been exceptional, but describing SOAR as a great concert would have ignored most of what had happened. David Foster & Friends had been the culmination of the day, not the explanation for it. The story had started hours earlier among rocks that were hundreds of millions of years old, moved through conversations about architecture and environmental stewardship, into a technology presentation, across a naturally occurring amphitheater and finally onto a stage filled with musicians.

What made the experience difficult to put into words was not any one of those pieces. It was the accumulation of them.

Earlier in the day, Vince had described this part of Grant County not as being in the “middle of nowhere,” but in the “middle of everywhere.” There is a certain audacity to that statement, but Vince and Carol Bryan have some history behind it.

They have already watched one improbable idea on this landscape grow far beyond its beginnings. Vince told guests Saturday about the hurried work that went into preparing an improvised amphitheater for the winery’s early grand opening, a gathering place that eventually became the beginning of the Gorge Amphitheatre. What started as a solution to a very local problem became a venue capable of drawing people from around the world.

The Hilltop is another ambitious bet on this same corner of the 98848, but it is a different kind of bet. Rather than attempting to recreate the massive concert experience the Gorge now provides, Vince and Carol are proposing something smaller in scale and broader in purpose: a place where an internationally known performer and a Quincy student could potentially stand on the same stage at different times; where a scientist could introduce an audience to an idea they had never considered; where someone could hear a symphony for the first time; and where the landscape itself remains part of whatever happens there.

There are legitimate questions still ahead about whether all of that can be built, funded, sustained and kept accessible to the community around it. Those questions matter, particularly for a project with aspirations that extend far beyond Grant County, and they should remain part of the conversation as The Hilltop develops.

But after Saturday, there is also something concrete against which those future questions can be measured.

Before SOAR, The Hilltop was something Vince and Carol Bryan could explain to us. They could show us drawings, walk us across the property, describe the buildings and tell us what they hoped would happen when people from different disciplines and backgrounds eventually gathered there.

On August 22, for one long day above the Columbia, they did something more useful.

They showed us what they meant.

A Different Kind of Destination for the 98848

There is another potential consequence that reaches beyond education and cultural access.

Quincy already knows what happens when people from outside the region discover a reason to come here.

The Gorge Amphitheatre has spent decades bringing enormous crowds into this part of Grant County. Those weekends affect hotels, vacation rentals, campgrounds, restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations and other businesses throughout the area. They also bring traffic, public-safety demands and other pressures familiar to anyone who has lived here through a major concert weekend.

The Hilltop would target a different experience and, potentially, a different kind of visitor.

Its planned venues are considerably smaller than the Gorge, and intimacy is central to their design. The Grotto is being conceived around roughly 1,200 seats, while The Terraces is intended for approximately 2,000. Rather than competing with a 30,000-person amphitheater next door, The Hilltop is being built around the idea that smaller audiences can have closer experiences with performers, speakers and the surrounding environment.

If the project eventually attracts the caliber of artists, scientists and thinkers its founders envision, those visitors will still need places to stay, eat and spend time. They may also come for experiences that do not fit neatly into the traditional summer concert season. That creates potential opportunities for businesses throughout Quincy, George and the surrounding area, although the actual economic effect will depend on the eventual programming schedule, attendance, length of visitor stays and how much of that activity reaches businesses beyond the immediate property.

Those are questions worth following rather than answering prematurely.

There is also something less measurable at stake. The national and international identity of this part of Grant County has long been shaped by agriculture, the Columbia River, hydroelectric power and, increasingly, large-scale technology infrastructure. The Gorge added another identity by demonstrating that one of the world’s recognizable music destinations could exist among the basalt cliffs and sagebrush outside George.

The Hilltop is proposing another layer: that this landscape can also become a gathering place for ideas, arts, science and education.

Whether that happens at the scale Vince and Carol imagine remains to be seen. But after SOAR, it is no longer difficult to understand what they are attempting.

The Hard Part Starts Now

There is a danger after an event like Saturday’s of confusing a successful introduction with a completed project.

The Hilltop is not complete.

Its most important venues have not been built. Some design questions remain unresolved. The architects acknowledged as much when discussing the challenges of creating a room capable of handling everything from symphonic music and theater to lectures and banquets while maintaining excellent acoustics and efficient operations. Sustainability goals involving energy, water and the surrounding environment will eventually have to survive the transition from renderings and design conversations into engineering, construction and daily operation.

Then there is the financial reality. The founders’ SOAR letter described the festival as helping lay the foundation for The Hilltop and invited guests to consider becoming Founding Partners through philanthropic support. Building an institution with these ambitions will require more than enthusiasm generated by one successful event.

The local-access promise will also be worth watching carefully. There is an inherent tension in creating something intended to attract world-class talent and visitors while also promising that the community surrounding it will remain part of the institution. Tickets to major performers can be expensive. High-end destinations can unintentionally become places local families admire from a distance rather than places they actually use.

Nothing we heard Saturday suggested that is what Vince and Carol want. Quite the opposite. Their repeated references to schools, young people, community performances and exposing people to experiences they might not otherwise have were among the most consistent themes of the day.

The measure, however, will be what happens as the vision becomes an operating institution.

Will Quincy students perform there? Will local families be able to attend programs? Will teachers see educational opportunities that didn’t exist before? Will regional musicians share stages with internationally recognized performers, as the Wenatchee Valley Symphony did Saturday? Will someone who believes symphonies, Broadway, scientific lectures or serious theater “aren’t for people like me” walk through the door anyway?

If those things happen alongside the major performances and international visitors, The Hilltop could become something unusual: a destination that brings part of the world to the 98848 while simultaneously giving people who live here greater access to that world.

That possibility is worth paying attention to.

The Place That Isn’t Here Yet

I have spent several days trying to find the right way to describe Saturday.

I kept returning to the performers because they were extraordinary. I thought about the Wenatchee Valley Symphony playing as daylight faded behind the Cascades, Mari Nelson and Alexander Kilian bringing Broadway into the evening, Sarah realizing how much of David Foster’s music had accompanied her through different stages of life, and David Foster, Katharine McPhee and their friends turning the final hours into something that felt far more intimate than the résumés onstage would suggest.

But every time I tried to make the concert the center of the story, something felt incomplete.

Eventually, I kept coming back to that afternoon in The Terraces.

I was sitting on rock high above the Columbia, listening to music move through a natural amphitheater while looking across one of the landscapes that defines this part of Washington. Somewhere in that moment, I stopped thinking about the assignment and started thinking about my father. I could picture him sitting there, content to listen for hours, and I wished he could have experienced it.

That memory has stayed with me because it helped me understand something about what Vince and Carol are trying to build.

The most important thing about The Hilltop may never be its architecture, the famous people who perform there or the number of visitors it eventually attracts. Those things will determine whether the project succeeds institutionally, but they are not necessarily what people will carry home.

People carry home moments.

A child hearing an orchestra for the first time. A student meeting a scientist whose work suddenly makes a career seem possible. A family watching someone they know perform on a world-class stage. A person discovering an art form they had assumed wasn’t for them. A husband hearing a piece of music and unexpectedly thinking about his father.

Vince told us Saturday that his own mentor in neurosurgery deliberately exposed young residents to some of the greatest minds in their field because he understood what proximity to excellence could do. Vince and Carol are attempting to apply that idea on a much broader scale, creating a place where people can encounter excellence across disciplines and perhaps leave seeing some part of the world differently than they did when they arrived.

That is an enormous ambition for a hilltop outside Quincy.

Then again, this landscape has seen an enormous ambition before.

The Gorge Amphitheatre did not begin as the Gorge Amphitheatre the world knows today. It began with a winery, a local gathering, an improvised solution and two people willing to imagine that visitors might come to a remote piece of Grant County if there were something here worth experiencing.

Decades later, Vince and Carol Bryan are asking a similar question in a different way.

What if people came here not only to hear music, but to encounter ideas, science, theater, nature and one another? What if internationally recognized performers and thinkers came to the same place where children from Quincy and surrounding communities could someday take a stage? What if this corner of the 98848 could become, as Vince put it, not the middle of nowhere but the “middle of everywhere”?

There are buildings to design, money to raise and difficult questions still to answer before we know how much of that dream will become reality.

But Saturday gave us the first meaningful glimpse.

And when I think back on SOAR Festival 2026, I don’t first see the architectural renderings or even the famous performers under the lights. I see that unfinished terrace above the Columbia. I hear the music. I see the blue sky stretching across the Gorge, and for a moment, I can still picture my father sitting there beside me.

The Hilltop Vince and Carol imagine isn’t here yet.

For 11 hours Saturday, it felt like it was.

There are three days left until the first day of school, and you can feel the 98848 changing gears.

This time of year always has a strange overlap to it. Summer isn’t quite finished. The Aquatic Center is still busy, there’s live music happening around the river communities, and we’re still trying to squeeze a little more out of August. At the same time,…

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QUINCY — Months after Quincy officials approved a cash reward program in response to a rapid increase in graffiti across the city, no one has collected a reward. Graffiti reports, however, have declined.

That leaves Quincy Police with an encouraging development but an unanswered question: Is the city’s graffiti reward program working, or are other parts of the community’s response making the difference?

Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said the department does not yet have enough information to answer that question. “At this time, we have not paid a bounty, and we are still evaluating the overall effectiveness of the program,” Green said in response to questions from Source One News.

Rather than judging the program by whether someone collects a reward, Green said the department is evaluating the number and quality of tips it receives, whether those tips help identify suspects or advance cases, and whether the financial incentive is generating information investigators otherwise would have difficulty obtaining.

What police can say is that fewer graffiti incidents are being reported.

“Graffiti reports have gone down, and I believe it’s because Quincy citizens are taking an active approach in reporting suspicious activity,” Green said.

Police have not provided updated numbers showing the size of that decline, and Green did not attribute the reduction directly to the reward program.

TL;DR

• No graffiti reward has been paid since Quincy established the program.

• Police Chief Ryan Green says it is still too early to determine the program’s overall effectiveness.

• Graffiti reports have declined, which Green believes is partly connected to increased reporting of suspicious activity by residents.

• Police are evaluating both the number and quality of tips and whether they lead to suspects or advance investigations.

• QPD says the reward was never intended to be the city’s only response to graffiti.

• The department is also tracking graffiti, looking for patterns and repeat offenders, working with property owners and pursuing cases when sufficient evidence can be developed.

• Research on graffiti-control programs elsewhere suggests coordinated strategies involving reporting, tracking, rapid removal and targeted enforcement can be effective.

Program Followed Sharp Increase in Graffiti

The Quincy City Council approved the reward program earlier this year after police reported a sharp increase in graffiti incidents, including tagging authorities described as gang-related.

During the council meeting in which the program was approved, police reported approximately 27 separate graffiti incidents over a recent two-week period. Captain Jorge Trujillo, who was leading the investigation at the time, told council members officers had identified a suspect who was not a Quincy resident and were pursuing search warrants and digital evidence.

City officials also described how quickly some of the vandalism was occurring. Mayor Paul Worley referenced surveillance footage in which approximately 30 feet was tagged in about 22 seconds.

The speed of those incidents created an obvious problem for traditional police response. Unless an officer or witness happened to see the crime occurring, the person responsible could be gone long before police arrived.

The city responded by adopting a policy authorizing rewards of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of someone responsible for graffiti. The policy also allows an additional $250 when the crime occurs within 500 feet of a school, recreation center or library.

The reward is not automatically paid when someone submits a name. Information must be investigated and satisfy the requirements established under the city’s policy.

Reward Was Never Intended as the Only Response

Green said the financial incentive should be viewed as one part of a larger effort rather than Quincy’s primary answer to graffiti.

“We have not viewed the reward as a sole solution to the graffiti problem,” Green said. “Our approach also includes investigating graffiti incidents, identifying repeat offenders and patterns, working with property owners, documenting and tracking graffiti, and pursuing enforcement when we can establish sufficient evidence.”

Some of those strategies were already developing when council approved the reward.

Police told city leaders at the time that investigators were examining cell phone and GPS information as they attempted to connect multiple incidents to individual suspects. Trujillo explained that establishing a connection between several cases could potentially allow prosecutors to aggregate offenses and pursue more serious charges rather than treating each incident as an isolated misdemeanor.

Residents had also begun discussing neighborhood involvement. Trujillo told council that police had met with community members concerned about graffiti and that some expressed interest in establishing block-watch programs.

Green’s assessment several months later suggests community participation may have become one of the more important pieces of the response. One of the persistent difficulties in graffiti cases, he said, remains establishing who actually committed the offense, particularly when one person may be responsible for multiple locations.

“That is why community involvement and timely reporting are important,” Green said. “The City currently encourages residents to report graffiti and other criminal activity, so officers can follow up on the information.”

Other Cities Have Used Broader Strategies

The approach Green described is consistent with graffiti-control strategies studied elsewhere, where financial rewards are generally one possible tool rather than the centerpiece of a response.

U.S. Department of Justice guidance on graffiti recommends a combination of strategies that can include encouraging residents to report graffiti and offenders, routinely monitoring frequently targeted locations, rapidly removing graffiti, increasing the likelihood offenders will be identified and concentrating enforcement efforts on chronic offenders.

One example studied by the National Institute of Justice came from St. Louis Park, Minnesota, where city departments developed a coordinated program involving citizen reporting, rapid removal, graffiti tracking, public education and cooperation among police, public works, property owners and other organizations.

The city identified 710 graffiti incidents during the first year of the effort, including graffiti that had been present for some time. Six years later, approximately 150 incidents were being reported annually.

The experience does not establish that Quincy will see similar results or that any single strategy was responsible for St. Louis Park’s reduction. The communities are different, and Quincy’s program is still relatively new. It does demonstrate why graffiti-control efforts often combine enforcement with reporting, documentation, removal and community participation rather than relying on one tactic.

Rapid removal is another strategy frequently emphasized in graffiti-control guidance because allowing tags to remain visible can provide offenders with the recognition they are seeking while signaling that an area is not being actively maintained.

For Quincy, that could mean the next phase of the response develops well beyond the original cash incentive.

Measuring Whether the Reward Actually Works

Determining whether Quincy’s program is successful will require more than counting reward checks.

No reward has been paid, but that fact alone does not establish that the program is ineffective. A reward program could encourage information or increase awareness without producing a claim that ultimately qualifies for payment. Conversely, paying a reward would not necessarily demonstrate that the program reduced graffiti citywide.

Green said police are therefore looking at the information the program produces.

The department is evaluating the number and quality of tips, whether they identify suspects, whether they contribute to cases and whether police are receiving information that would otherwise have been difficult to obtain.

One figure QPD has not yet provided is the number of tips generated by the program since its adoption. Without that number, it is too early to determine how much direct investigative activity the financial incentive itself has produced.

The decline in graffiti reports is similarly encouraging but does not establish causation. Increased citizen reporting, police investigations, greater public awareness, deterrence, removal efforts or other factors could all contribute to a reduction.

For now, Green believes the program should be given more time.

“At this point, I believe the bounty is worth continuing while we collect enough information to properly evaluate its effectiveness,” he said. “I also think we should continue looking at additional strategies rather than relying solely on a financial reward.”

Community Reporting Remains Central to Police Response

Whatever role the reward ultimately plays, QPD’s current strategy continues to depend heavily on residents reporting graffiti and suspicious activity promptly.

Those reports can provide more than notification that another property has been tagged. Information about the time an incident occurred, vehicles in the area, surveillance footage or recurring activity can potentially help investigators identify patterns between cases.

That becomes particularly important when the same offender is suspected of operating at multiple locations. The city’s challenge now is determining which pieces of its response are producing measurable results and where additional resources should be directed.

“Graffiti continues to be something we take seriously, and we want to make sure the resources we are putting toward it are producing results,” Green said.

Several months after Quincy offered money for information, the most visible result is therefore not a reward payment. It is a decline in reported graffiti. Whether the bounty helped produce that decline remains an open question.

For Green and the Quincy Police Department, that is reason to keep evaluating the program rather than declaring either success or failure; while continuing the investigations, community reporting and additional strategies that may ultimately prove more important than the reward itself.

When students return to classrooms across the 98848, the Quincy School District will begin operating under a General Fund budget of nearly $63.75 million. It is the largest annual school budget most residents have probably ever seen attached to the district, and taken by itself, that number can produce an understandable reaction: Where does $63.75 million go in a community our size?

That is a fair question. It also turns out to be much more complicated than dividing $63.75 million by the number of students and calling it the cost of education in Quincy.

The Quincy School Board formally adopted the district’s 2026-27 budget during its August 18 meeting, approving $63,751,257 in General Fund expenditures, along with separate budgets for transportation vehicles, capital projects, debt service and Associated Student Body funds. The General Fund alone is about $3.3 million larger than the $60.44 million budget listed for 2025-26.

But that does not mean the district suddenly found another $3.3 million to spend however it chooses. It does not mean every dollar comes from local taxpayers, either. And even though the adopted General Fund shows exactly $63.75 million coming in and exactly $63.75 million going out, that does not mean district officials already know they will receive precisely that amount.

That is where understanding Quincy’s school budget begins.

The district receives money from the state, federal government and local sources. Much of the state funding depends on enrollment. Federal dollars are frequently restricted to particular programs. Local levy dollars help pay expenses state funding does not fully cover. Salaries and employee benefits consume more than four out of every five General Fund dollars. And some numbers in the budget are estimates that will change as actual enrollment, staffing and grant funding become known.

District officials were explicit about that uncertainty in the budget documents: actual 2026-27 General Fund revenue will not be known until January 2027, when funding can be adjusted using actual average student enrollment and staffing information.

So rather than simply reporting that Quincy approved a $63.75 million school budget, Life in the 98848 went through the district’s budget presentation, board discussions and adopted budget to answer a more useful question:

What does $63.75 million actually mean?

TL;DR

• $63.75 million: The Quincy School District adopted a $63,751,257 General Fund budget for 2026-27.

• That isn’t the district’s entire financial picture: Quincy separately budgets Capital Projects, Debt Service, ASB and Transportation Vehicle funds.

• The General Fund is balanced on paper: The district budgeted $63.75 million in revenue and the same amount in expenditures, but some revenue remains dependent on enrollment, grants and other factors.

• People are the biggest expense: Approximately 82.9% of General Fund expenditures are salaries and employee benefits.

• Most of the money comes from the state: State funding accounts for roughly 76% of General Fund revenue, compared with about 16% from local sources and 8% from federal sources.

• Enrollment matters enormously: Quincy budgeted for fewer students than its 2025-26 average, and enrollment is one of the primary drivers determining how much state funding the district ultimately receives.

• The state doesn’t cover everything: The district reports a multimillion-dollar gap between state funding for materials, supplies and operating costs and what those expenses actually cost Quincy. Local levy dollars help close that gap.

• The district has reserves: Quincy projects approximately $5.67 million in General Fund balance, with board policy requiring a minimum reserve equal to 8% of expenditures.

• Some numbers deserve watching: The budget contains estimates for enrollment, staffing and future funding that will become clearer after the school year begins. A balanced adopted budget should therefore be understood as the district’s financial plan for the year, not a final accounting of what 2026-27 will ultimately cost.

First, $63.75 Million Is Not One Giant Checking Account

The easiest mistake to make when looking at a government budget is assuming the largest number represents a pile of money available for officials to spend. School finance does not work that way.

Quincy actually adopted budgets for five separate funds on August 18. The General Fund is by far the largest and pays for the day-to-day operation of the school district. The remaining funds serve more specific purposes.

For 2026-27, the district budgeted:

Adding those figures produces more than $73.7 million in authorized expenditures, but even that number needs context. It would be misleading to describe Quincy as having a “$73.7 million operating budget” because those funds do different jobs and some are spending money accumulated in previous years.

The General Fund is the number that matters most when trying to understand the annual operation of Quincy schools. It pays for teachers and other employees, benefits, classroom programs, special education, transportation operations, food service, utilities, maintenance, administration and many of the other expenses required to open the doors each morning.

The Capital Projects Fund is different. Quincy expects only $212,000 in new revenue there during 2026-27 but has authorized approximately $1.17 million in expenditures. At first glance, that looks like the district is spending nearly $1 million more than it receives.

It is — but that does not necessarily mean it is operating at a loss.

The district expects to begin the year with approximately $1.15 million already sitting in the Capital Projects Fund and plans to use much of that accumulated balance during the year. If the budget plays out as projected, approximately $193,000 would remain at the end of August 2027.

The Transportation Vehicle Fund operates similarly. Money accumulates in that fund partly through state depreciation payments and can then be spent on school buses. District officials explained during the July 28 presentation that this fund is specifically for yellow school buses used to transport students.

That distinction matters because without it, perfectly ordinary accounting can look alarming. A fund spending more this year than it receives this year can be intentional if the district saved the money previously for exactly that purpose.

The opposite is also true: a balanced General Fund does not automatically tell us that every part of the district’s finances is equally healthy.

And that brings us to the $63.75 million itself.

Where Does $63.75 Million Come From?

For all the complexity contained in a school budget, the Quincy School District’s General Fund ultimately depends on three broad sources of money: the state, the federal government and local revenue.

The state is by far the largest.

For 2026-27, approximately 76% of the district’s General Fund revenue is expected to come from the State of Washington. Local revenue accounts for roughly 16%, while federal funding makes up approximately 8%. District officials described that overall mix as very similar to the previous year.

That distinction is important in a community where discussions about a $63.75 million school budget can quickly become discussions about property taxes. Local taxpayers absolutely play an important role in funding Quincy schools, but they are not locally raising $63.75 million each year.

The largest share comes through state funding tied to education, and one of the most important drivers behind that money is something much easier to understand: how many students Quincy is actually educating.

State apportionment essentially the primary stream of state funding for basic education represents the district’s largest revenue source. The state also provides funding for programs including special education, transportation, Learning Assistance, Transitional Bilingual education and Transitional Kindergarten. Federal dollars help support programs including Title I, Migrant education, federal special education and portions of vocational education.

Local revenue is its own mixture. The district receives levy dollars, but local revenue also includes investment earnings, facility rentals, donations, smaller local grants and money collected through certain school activities. Even with free school meals, for example, families can still put money into student accounts for additional meals, milk or other à la carte purchases.

That leaves Quincy with a budget built from many different funding streams, some of which come with rules attached to them.

A federal Title I dollar cannot necessarily be moved wherever the district happens to need another dollar. Money allocated for special education supports special education. Transportation funding is connected to transportation. Other programs similarly have allowable uses.

That is one reason the $63.75 million number can be deceptive. It describes the size of the General Fund, but it does not describe $63.75 million of unrestricted spending power.

There is another complication: some of the money does not truly become known until students arrive.

In School Finance, Students Are Also a Revenue Number

No child should ever be reduced to a number on a spreadsheet, but when building a public-school budget, enrollment is unavoidable. The number of students attending Quincy schools helps determine how much money the district receives from the state.

That makes enrollment one of the biggest assumptions built into the 2026-27 budget.

During the 2025-26 school year, Quincy had budgeted for 3,148 students but actually averaged approximately 3,182 students, including Transitional Kindergarten. District officials said that higher-than-expected enrollment generated additional revenue during the year and contributed to the need for a budget extension.

For 2026-27, the district is projecting 3,120 FTE students, with Transitional Kindergarten accounted for separately under a change in how that enrollment is projected. At the July meeting, district officials said adding 48 projected Transitional Kindergarten students brings the overall student picture much closer to the previous year’s enrollment.

Even that requires some translation.

FTE means full-time equivalent. A student attending full time generally represents one FTE, while students participating only part time can represent fractions of an FTE. The state looks at enrollment throughout the year rather than simply counting everyone standing inside a Quincy classroom on the first day of school.

District staff told the board that enrollment is reported monthly and averaged across the school year. That becomes particularly important in Quincy because students move in and out of the district throughout the year.

Administrators described a noticeable pattern: enrollment can be relatively high in September and October, decline during the winter and sometimes increase again in the spring. They said Quincy can lose roughly 30 students between school years while also gaining new students as families move into the community.

There is another wrinkle at the high school.

The district’s enrollment projections show what initially appears to be a significant drop as students move into the upper grades. During the July presentation, however, staff explained that some of those students are not leaving Quincy schools at all. Approximately 20 incoming juniors were moved from the traditional high-school enrollment projection into Running Start, reflecting students expected to attend college courses instead.

All of this explains a sentence buried in the district’s budget presentation that may be one of the most important in the entire document:

Actual General Fund revenue will not be available until January 2027, when actual average FTE enrollment and staff funding can be incorporated into the numbers.

In other words, the School Board has adopted a $63.75 million budget, but the district has also openly acknowledged that the revenue side of that budget still contains projections. That isn’t necessarily a warning sign. It is how a school district must build a budget before the students who drive much of its state funding have actually arrived for the year.

It does, however, give the community an important number to watch.

If enrollment comes in stronger than projected, Quincy could receive more revenue than originally budgeted, as happened during 2025-26. If enrollment falls short, the equation can move the other direction. And once the money arrives, the largest share of it does not go toward textbooks, computers, sports, buses or buildings.

It goes to people.

More Than 80 Cents of Every Dollar Goes to Employees

The largest expense in the Quincy School District is the same expense that dominates most service organizations: the people required to operate it. Approximately 82.9% of the district’s projected General Fund expenditures for 2026-27 are salaries and employee benefits, leaving about 17.1% for non-employee costs.

Put another way, for every $100 Quincy expects to spend from its General Fund, roughly $83 is connected to employees.

That includes far more than classroom teachers.

The district operates multiple schools and programs requiring teachers, paraeducators, principals, secretaries, counselors, nurses, librarians, psychologists, administrators, transportation staff, maintenance and custodial employees, food-service operations and other personnel needed to keep a school system functioning.

Still, district administrators have been watching that percentage.

During the July budget presentation, district officials said employee costs had been closer to 85% the previous year and had created concern as the district worked to “right size” staffing after the end of federal ESSER pandemic-era funding. For 2026-27, that percentage has fallen to just under 83%.

There is an important caveat here as well.

The district believes even 82.9% may overstate where employee costs ultimately land. Some positions were included in the budget that had not been filled, and officials said some of that work could instead be purchased through contracts. If that happens, the expense does not disappear, but accounting moves it from an employee cost to a non-employee cost.

The staffing numbers themselves provide another example of why the first number on a government budget should not always be taken at face value.

The 2026-27 budget initially shows 181.91 certificated staff FTE compared with 170.25 FTE funded through Basic Education, apparently leaving the district with nearly 12 certificated positions beyond what the state funding model supports. That would be worth questioning if that were the whole story.

It isn’t.

The district specifically cautions in its budget presentation that federal program allocations had not yet been updated when the budget was submitted. Funding that had not yet been identified was temporarily allocated to Basic Education, making the apparent staffing difference larger than officials expect it to be after those dollars are properly assigned.

There is a useful comparison from the year that just ended. In June, Quincy reported 172.49 actual certificated staff FTE against 172.21 funded FTE, a difference of only 0.28 positions before final adjustments.

That doesn’t mean residents should ignore the 11.66-position difference in the new budget. It means the responsible thing is to watch whether that gap closes as the district says it should once federal and other funding allocations are finalized. It is a recurring theme throughout this budget: some numbers deserve attention without necessarily deserving alarm.

The next one deserves both attention and a much better explanation than most Washington residents ever receive.

The State Funds Schools But It Doesn’t Pay the Entire Bill

One of the most important numbers in Quincy’s budget is not $63.75 million.

It is $6,230,494.96.

That is the gap the district reports between what Washington provides Quincy for Materials, Supplies and Operating Costs commonly called MSOC and what the district expects those things will actually cost during 2026-27.

According to the district’s required MSOC disclosure, Quincy expects approximately $4.41 million in state MSOC funding. The district expects to spend approximately $10.64 million.

The difference is approximately $6.23 million.

That deserves some perspective.

MSOC is the decidedly unglamorous side of running schools: the materials, supplies and operating expenses necessary to keep the system functioning. During the July presentation, district administrators told the board directly that state funding does not cover what it actually costs Quincy to operate the district and that levy dollars are commonly used to help cover the difference.

Insurance is one significant example.

District officials said Quincy paid approximately $1.2 million for insurance last year. The district had previously experienced insurance increases of roughly 40%, followed by increases of 18% and 10%. For the coming year, officials said the increase is approximately 3%, which they described as a significant relief compared with recent years.

The district also reported having no insurance claims during the most recent year, after only two or three the year before. Administrators noted that mild winters have helped avoid some of the expensive building problems districts can face, pointing to a previous pipe-related event that cost roughly $150,000 to $180,000.

This is where the local levy begins to look different from the way it is often discussed during election season.

Residents frequently hear that Washington funds basic education while local levies support enhancements beyond basic education. The budget documents show a more complicated reality on the ground in Quincy: local money is also helping fill gaps between state allocations and what some district operations and programs actually cost.

During the July meeting, a board member noticed that projected expenditures for some programs were higher than the revenue specifically associated with them and asked whether levy dollars covered those shortfalls. District staff said that, in some cases, they do. Transitional Kindergarten and gifted education were specifically identified during that discussion.

That does not automatically tell us the state is underfunding every one of those programs by the difference shown on a budget line. State and local school accounting is more complicated than that. But the district’s own MSOC disclosure leaves little ambiguity about the larger issue: Quincy expects to spend more than twice what the state provides specifically for those operating costs.

For taxpayers in the 98848, that may be one of the most important pieces of the entire budget.

Because once we understand that local levy dollars are helping close gaps in what the state provides, another question becomes unavoidable:

How much financial breathing room does Quincy have if costs rise, enrollment changes or state funding doesn’t keep pace?

That answer is sitting in the district’s fund balance.

The $5.67 Million Reserve Is Not $5.67 Million Waiting to Be Spent

If there is one number in the budget that could be misunderstood almost as easily as the $63.75 million headline, it is the Quincy School District’s projected $5.67 million General Fund balance.

It is tempting to look at that figure and ask why a school district needs millions of dollars sitting in reserve while taxpayers continue paying a local levy and the district says state funding does not cover all of its operating costs.

The answer starts with a School Board policy requiring the district to maintain a minimum General Fund balance equal to 8% of its budgeted expenditures.

For 2026-27, that requirement accounts for approximately $5.1 million of the projected $5.67 million balance. The district’s budget documents specifically reserve $5,100,100.63 for the 8% minimum, leaving a much smaller amount assigned to other purposes.

The remaining balance includes $100,000 assigned for buses, $50,000 for technology, $50,000 for furniture and equipment replacement, $70,000 for curriculum materials, a $250,000 carryover allowance and approximately $53,000 for unemployment costs.

Those assignments can change as district needs change. The 8% minimum is different.

During the July 28 presentation, district staff explained that the minimum reserve had previously been 5% before the School Board increased it to 8%. When a board member jokingly suggested increasing it to 10%, the district’s presenter responded that 10% would be tight and said the district’s current position between roughly 8% and 10% was considered healthy.

There is a practical reason for keeping money available.

A school district does not receive every dollar of its annual revenue on September 1 and then steadily spend it until August 31. Revenue arrives throughout the year, expenses continue throughout the year, and some of the district’s largest costs — payroll, benefits, utilities, transportation and basic operations — cannot simply stop while it waits for another payment.

A reserve also gives the district some protection against an unexpected expense or a change in revenue. What is especially useful here is that Quincy provided more than two decades of fund-balance history, allowing residents to see whether the current reserve is unusual.

It isn’t.

Quincy’s General Fund balance has fluctuated considerably over the years. It reached more than 20% of the General Fund budget in 2015-16 and 2016-17, before gradually declining. More recently, the actual fund balance represented 12.4% in 2021-22, 10.3% in 2022-23, 9.81% in 2023-24 and 9.97% in 2024-25. The district currently projects its 2025-26 balance at approximately 9.39%, although the final number will not be available until year-end closing in October.

That history changes the context considerably.

The district is not currently accumulating reserves at the levels it was a decade ago. Instead, the projected $5.67 million balance puts Quincy relatively close to the minimum reserve established by the School Board.

There is also a notable bit of conservatism built into that projection. During the July meeting, district staff said they believed the 2025-26 ending balance could actually come in higher than $5.67 million because enrollment had exceeded expectations, but chose not to build the new budget around that assumption.

That final number will be worth returning to when the district closes its books this fall.

If the balance comes in substantially above $5.67 million, the district will have more financial breathing room than this budget currently shows. If it lands near the projection, Quincy will begin the year with most of its General Fund reserve already committed to maintaining the board’s 8% minimum.

That makes the reserve neither a hidden pile of money nor something residents should ignore. It is financial protection, and the amount of protection Quincy maintains is ultimately a policy decision made by the elected School Board.

There is, however, another $1.5 million sitting inside the General Fund budget that requires a different explanation.

There Is $1.5 Million in the Budget for Money That Doesn’t Fully Exist Yet

Buried among dozens of programs in Quincy’s General Fund is one unusually simple entry:

Program 79 — Capacity: $1,500,000.

That deserves explanation because, without it, a reader could reasonably assume the district has set aside $1.5 million for an unspecified program called “Capacity.”

It hasn’t.

The district describes the $1.5 million as budget capacity intended to accommodate anticipated grant carryover dollars, future grants and additional enrollment. It appears on both sides of the General Fund budget: $1.5 million is included within projected revenue and $1.5 million is included within authorized expenditures.

In plain English, think of it less like $1.5 million already sitting in a bank account and more like room built into the budget before the year begins.

Suppose Quincy receives a grant after the budget has already been adopted. The grant brings additional revenue, but accepting that money is only useful if the district also has legal budget authority to spend it. Similarly, if enrollment comes in higher than projected, additional students can generate additional state revenue while also creating additional expenses. The district is building room for some of that uncertainty into the budget from the beginning.

That accounting choice also reveals something important about the headline number.

Of the $63.75 million shown as both General Fund revenue and expenditures, $1.5 million about 2.35% of the entire General Fund budget is this capacity provision. That means readers should be careful about interpreting $63.75 million as a forecast that Quincy expects to collect and spend exactly $63.75 million during the year.

The district’s own documents say otherwise. They repeatedly characterize revenue and expenditures as estimates dependent on enrollment, staffing, grants and other variables.

There is nothing inherently troubling about creating budget capacity for anticipated changes. In fact, the previous school year demonstrates why the district might want it. Enrollment came in higher than budgeted in 2025-26, bringing additional revenue and eventually requiring the district to seek a budget extension.

Still, the $1.5 million provision creates an important transparency issue for the community to understand.

Capacity is not the same thing as revenue already secured.

The district identifies the reasons for the allowance — grant carryover, future grants and additional enrollment — but the adopted budget materials do not break the $1.5 million into specific amounts expected from each source. They also do not tell residents, at adoption, exactly where all $1.5 million would ultimately be spent because those circumstances have not yet occurred.

That is not an accusation of improper budgeting. It is simply where the certainty in the documents ends. If those revenues materialize, residents should eventually be able to see what came in and where the corresponding expenditures went. If they do not materialize, the existence of budget authority does not by itself create $1.5 million for the district to spend.

That distinction is particularly important because the General Fund is presented as perfectly balanced: $63,751,257 in revenue and $63,751,257 in expenditures. The two numbers match.

But $1.5 million on each side exists partly to accommodate financial events that have not happened yet. A balanced budget, in other words, is a plan. It is not a prediction that will be correct down to the dollar.

The Budget Has More Stability Than the Headline Suggests and More Uncertainty Too

After working through the numbers, two seemingly contradictory things can be true about Quincy’s 2026-27 school budget.

The district appears to enter the year from a reasonably stable financial position. It has a projected $5.67 million General Fund balance, an 8% minimum reserve policy, transportation that administrators say is currently fully funded, and a history of actual fund balances that has generally remained above the board’s current minimum. The district also budgeted enrollment conservatively enough last year that actual enrollment exceeded its projection.

At the same time, there are legitimate pressures worth watching.

The state provides approximately $4.41 million toward MSOC expenses that Quincy expects will cost $10.64 million. Local dollars help support programs where dedicated funding does not meet expenditures. More than 80% of the General Fund is tied to employees and benefits, meaning relatively small changes in staffing costs can quickly become large dollar amounts. Enrollment drives significant portions of state revenue, and the district will not know its actual General Fund revenue until well into the school year.

Transportation is healthy today, according to administrators, but district leadership specifically told the board it is concerned about proposals in Olympia that could lengthen the state’s bus depreciation schedule and reduce future funding.

None of those individually indicates Quincy is approaching a financial crisis.

Together, however, they explain why simply asking whether the district has a “balanced budget” does not tell us very much. The more useful question is whether the assumptions underneath that balance continue holding as the year unfolds.

$63.75 Million Is the Starting Point

When we began, the obvious question was how a school district serving a community the size of Quincy could spend nearly $64 million in a single year. After digging through the budget, that question hasn’t become less legitimate. It has become more informed.

Quincy operates multiple schools, educates more than 3,000 students, employs hundreds of people, transports children across a large rural district, serves meals, maintains buildings, operates specialized programs and provides services ranging from special education and bilingual instruction to career and technical education. Doing all of that costs tens of millions of dollars.

But understanding the size of the operation should never mean residents stop asking questions about how those dollars are used.

The 2026-27 budget gives the Quincy School District room to operate, maintains its board-required reserve and anticipates another year with more than $63 million moving through the General Fund. It also depends on enrollment projections, future grant dollars and state funding formulas that do not always cover what programs actually cost.

That is why the number worth remembering is not simply $63.75 million.

It is the collection of numbers underneath it 82.9% for people, an 8% minimum reserve, a $6.23 million MSOC funding gap, $1.5 million of budget capacity and roughly 3,100 students whose enrollment ultimately helps determine how much money arrives.

Those are the numbers that will tell residents of the 98848 whether the budget approved in August works the way it was supposed to once the school year moves from a spreadsheet to actual classrooms.

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Quincy’s data centers changed more than the skyline and the City’s tax base. Over time, they also changed what was possible for a student graduating from Quincy High School. Instead of assuming that the well-paying technical jobs behind those walls would always be filled by workers recruited from somewhere else, local educators and industry partners built a pathway that could prepare Quincy students for those careers. Now, with another wave of energy and industrial development taking shape around the 98848, the organization that helped build that pathway believes it is time to do it again.

NCW Tech Alliance CEO Dr. Sue Kane appeared before the Quincy City Council to present the Future Ready Energy & Industrial Technology Pathways Project, or FREIT, a proposed four-year regional effort that would connect K-12 education, colleges, employers and industry training programs. The goal is straightforward even if the work behind it is not: identify the technical jobs Quincy and the region will need, determine what skills and credentials those employers require, and create a path that allows local students to begin preparing for those careers before they leave high school.

TL;DR

• NCW Tech Alliance and its Apple STEM Network are developing the Future Ready Energy & Industrial Technology Pathways Project, a four-year effort scheduled from 2026 through 2030.

• The proposed pathway would connect Quincy students with careers in energy, utilities, industrial technology and infrastructure, much as earlier regional work helped establish pathways into Quincy’s data center industry.

• The program would coordinate Quincy School District career and technical education courses with colleges, industry credentials, apprenticeships and employer requirements.

• NCW Tech Alliance is requesting a $50,000 total commitment from the City of Quincy over four years, not $50,000 annually. That could be paid as approximately $12,500 per year if the City chose to spread the contribution across the project.

• The Port of Quincy has already made what Kane described as a significant investment in the project, and Chelan County PUD has committed funding. Additional proposals are being considered by other regional utilities.

• The proposal identifies a major local opportunity: 68% of family-sustaining entry-level jobs in the region require some credential beyond high school, while only 34% of local students are currently on track to access those pathways.

• Quincy-specific data included in the presentation shows 58% of students had not earned a postsecondary credential within eight years of high school graduation.

• The same data shows a significant long-term earnings difference: median earnings 15 years after graduation were approximately $50,400 for graduates with only a high school diploma, $66,700 with an associate degree or certificate, and $82,900 with a bachelor’s degree or higher.

• No final City funding decision was made as part of Kane’s presentation. The request before the City is for $50,000 toward the four-year project.

Quincy Has Seen This Model Before

For Quincy, perhaps the most important part of Kane’s presentation was that the concept is not entirely theoretical.

About five years ago, the Apple STEM Network began similar work involving schools, colleges and employers to prepare local students for technical careers in the region’s data centers. The process took years because creating a workforce pathway involves much more than adding a class to the high school schedule.

High school curriculum has to meet state Career and Technical Education requirements. Courses need to connect with programs at institutions such as Big Bend Community College and Wenatchee Valley College. Certificates earned by students need to mean something to employers, and employers need to communicate what skills they actually expect from someone applying for an entry-level position.

Kane told the Council that the result of that earlier work can now be seen in Quincy graduates going directly into local data center jobs.

She described former Quincy students receiving starting salaries in the $60,000 to $70,000 range. One graduate, she said, told her that in his first year out of high school he was earning more than the combined salaries of both of his parents.

That matters because when Quincy’s data center industry initially expanded, many of those workers had to be recruited from outside the area. The pathway work was designed to change that equation by giving students who were already growing up here a realistic opportunity to become qualified candidates.

The FREIT proposal asks whether Quincy can apply the same lesson before the next workforce shortage arrives.

The Jobs Are Changing Again

The economic landscape around Quincy and North Central Washington is changing quickly.

The FREIT proposal describes Quincy as being at the center of growth in data centers, energy production and industrial innovation, along with agriculture, manufacturing and healthcare. Across the broader region, Kane pointed to battery materials, hydrogen, fusion energy, gravity storage, small-cell nuclear technology and potential natural gas development among the industries creating new workforce demands.

Those projects do not all mean the same thing for Quincy, but collectively they point toward a larger shift: energy and industrial infrastructure is becoming an increasingly important source of technical employment in North Central Washington.

That is particularly relevant locally as the Port of Quincy works on major industrial and energy-related development, including projects expected to create new workforce demands later this decade. The Port has already invested in development of the FREIT pathway, according to Kane, because workforce preparation and economic development increasingly have to happen together.

There is another workforce problem developing at the same time. Kane told the Council that the median age of workers at regional public utility districts is approximately 58. As experienced employees retire, utilities will need people prepared to replace them.

If those workers cannot be found locally, employers will recruit them elsewhere.

That solves one problem while potentially adding pressure to another. Recruiting additional workers into the region increases demand for housing and other community infrastructure. Preparing people who already live in the 98848 and surrounding communities gives economic development a different possibility: some of the people benefiting from new investment can be the young people who are already growing up here.

Building a Pathway Takes Four Years

The FREIT project is scheduled to run from 2026 through 2030, with each year building on the work completed before it.

The first year would focus largely on understanding what already exists. NCW Tech Alliance plans to conduct labor-market research, interview employers and other stakeholders, map existing education and training programs and establish a core working group.

That may sound like preliminary paperwork, but it addresses one of the central problems in workforce development. A student can take a useful class without necessarily ending up with a useful pathway. The class needs to lead somewhere.

In 2027-28, the project would move toward program design, aligning high school CTE coursework with college programs, establishing dual-credit articulation and developing the sequence of courses and approvals students would need.

Employer integration becomes a major focus in 2028-29. The plan calls for agreements with utilities and other employers, alignment around the competencies they need, work-based learning opportunities and student recruitment and outreach.

By 2029-30, the proposal anticipates student pilot programs, employer-supported learning experiences and data collection to determine what is working and what needs to change.

The distinction is important. NCW Tech Alliance is not proposing to simply write a curriculum and hand it to Quincy High School.

Kane described the Alliance’s role more like a coordinator between systems that normally operate independently: schools, colleges, apprenticeships, employers and community organizations. The work includes landscape analysis, capacity mapping, partnership development, curriculum alignment, dual credit, course sequencing, outreach, recruitment, pilot programs and eventually measuring student outcomes.

Quincy School District is already part of the Apple STEM Network, and Kane said the organization has worked with the district for approximately 11 years. She also noted that Quincy’s current high school structure, with its emphasis on Career and Technical Education pathways and career advising, gives the project a foundation on which to build.

The Numbers Explain Why It Matters

Some of the strongest arguments presented to the Council were not about industries that might arrive someday. They were about what is happening to Quincy students now.

According to the labor-market snapshot included in NCW Tech Alliance’s proposal, 68% of family-sustaining entry-level jobs in the region require some form of credential beyond high school. Nearly half, 48% also require some level of STEM literacy.

Only about 34% of local students are currently on track to access those family-sustaining career pathways.

The proposal defines a family-sustaining wage locally at roughly $52,000 per year. That puts an important distinction around the conversation. This is not simply about whether a graduate can find a job. It is about whether that graduate has access to enough of the labor market to build an independent adult life here.

Quincy-specific graduate data makes that gap more visible.

Eight years after high school graduation, 58% of Quincy School District graduates represented in the data had not earned a postsecondary credential. Sixteen percent had earned an associate degree or certificate, while 26% had earned a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Fifteen years after graduation, the median earnings associated with those paths had separated substantially. Graduates with only a high school diploma were earning a median of approximately $50,400. Those with an associate degree or certificate were at approximately $66,700, while those with a bachelor’s degree or higher were at approximately $82,900.

That is also why “postsecondary” in this discussion should not automatically be read as “four-year university.”

The pathway Kane described includes certificates, associate degrees, apprenticeships and other recognized credentials. An electrician apprenticeship, industry certificate or technical college program can fit within the same basic idea: give a student something beyond a diploma that employers recognize and that opens additional doors.

A $500,000 Regional Project and a $50,000 Request to Quincy

The entire four-year FREIT project carries a proposed budget of $500,000.

Of that amount, $320,000 is budgeted for a dedicated project management team, $100,000 for contracted services, $50,000 for outreach and engagement activities, and $30,000 for communications and reporting.

NCW Tech Alliance is not asking Quincy to carry that cost.

Kane told the Council that the Port of Quincy has already made a significant investment and agreed to help support the project if additional regional partners joined it. Chelan County PUD has also made a four-year commitment, and proposals were under consideration with other regional public utility districts.

The request to the City of Quincy is $50,000 over the entire four-year project.

That distinction prompted a clarification during the presentation.

Council members asked whether Kane was requesting $50,000 every year for four years. She said no. The total City contribution being requested is $50,000, which could be structured at approximately $12,500 per year if spread evenly across the four years.

The Council will review the request made during Kane’s presentation and consider making the investment or not.

More Than Classes: Getting Students Across the Finish Line

One Council question raised another issue that can easily get lost when communities talk about workforce development.

What happens after a student signs up?

Taking college-level technical coursework while still in high school can be a major adjustment. A pathway does little good if students enter it but do not have the resources to finish.

Kane described those resources as “wraparound supports.” Through NCW Tech Alliance, the Apple STEM Network, colleges and other community partners, that can include computers, digital literacy training, tutoring referrals, financial resources and connections to organizations helping students facing food or housing insecurity.

A Council member who also works within the school district offered a firsthand example, describing trips to Wenatchee to pick up free laptops provided through NCW Tech Alliance for Running Start students who otherwise might not have had the technology necessary to successfully complete their programs.

That part of the presentation offered an important reminder about what building a workforce actually means. It is not enough to tell a 16-year-old that a $70,000 technical career exists.

Someone has to show that student the road from here to there and then make sure there are not missing bridges along the way.

Preparing for the Jobs Before They Arrive

For years, one of Quincy’s economic development challenges has been making sure the growth happening around the community creates opportunities within the community.

The FREIT proposal puts that question directly in front of the City Council.

The requested $50,000 is only one piece of a much larger regional effort, and Council still has to decide whether City dollars should be part of it. But the more consequential question may be what Quincy wants its workforce to look like when the next generation of energy and industrial projects begins hiring.

The first data center workers came to Quincy because the jobs were here.

Years later, local students are graduating with a pathway that can allow them to compete for some of those same careers.

If the FREIT project works as intended, Quincy may not have to wait until the next industry is established to figure out how young people from the 98848 can participate. This time, the community has an opportunity to build the pathway while the jobs themselves are still coming into view, giving the students growing up here today a better chance to be the skilled workforce Quincy needs tomorrow.

You could feel it everywhere this week. School offices reopened. Parents started getting information about a new communication system. Fall sports registrations, physicals and practices moved onto the calendar. The Back to School Health Fair brought families and community resources together at the Port. Meanwhile, summer is still hanging on. The pool is…

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A letter arriving in mailboxes across the 98848 this week contains words guaranteed to get someone’s attention: Notice of Data Breach. For current and former Quincy Valley Medical Center patients, the natural questions are whether the hospital was hacked, what information was exposed and why they are only hearing about an incident that happened last December. The short answer is that QVMC’s computer system was not breached. The incident occurred at Aesto, a third-party company that stores historical QVMC records from a previous electronic medical record system. But that does not mean the letter should be ignored. Some patient information stored with Aesto may have been accessed by an unauthorized actor, and QVMC officials say understanding the difference between those two facts is important.

TL;DR

• Quincy Valley Medical Center itself was not breached. The security incident occurred at Aesto, a third-party healthcare data migration and archiving company used by QVMC.

• The QVMC information involved is largely archived historical information from the hospital’s previous electronic medical record system, rather than its current EMR.

• Aesto says the security incident occurred in December 2025 and affected part of its Amazon Web Services infrastructure.

• Aesto determined on May 26, 2026, that some protected health information belonging to QVMC patients may have been accessed or acquired by an unauthorized actor.

• QVMC says it was notified July 7, not when the original incident occurred in December.

• QVMC then had to determine who was affected and how to notify nearly 39,000 people connected to its historical records.

• Potentially affected information includes names and data such as Social Security numbers and medical record numbers. Aesto says it has found no evidence that the information has been misused.

• QVMC authorized the notification letters to be mailed August 5.

• Anyone with questions can contact QVMC’s compliance team at Compliance@quincyhospital.org. The Aesto notification letter also provides a dedicated response line at 833-918-8060 and instructs callers to use engagement number B167683.

The Breach Was at Aesto, Not QVMC

QVMC CEO Glenda Bishop and Director of Information Systems Tom Richardson sat down with Life in the 98848 Thursday to explain what happened after questions began circulating about the letters.

The first distinction Richardson made is the most important one: this was not a breach of QVMC’s computer network.

Aesto is a healthcare technology company that provides data migration and archiving services. Hospitals periodically replace the electronic medical record software they use, but changing systems does not mean old patient records can simply be thrown away. Those records still have to be retained, and companies such as Aesto specialize in preserving that historical information.

Richardson said the scope of the Aesto incident extended far beyond Quincy. While approximately 39,000 records connected to QVMC were identified as potentially affected, he said the overall breach involved roughly 9 million people nationwide. QVMC, he said, represents only a small portion of the larger incident.

QVMC has used Aesto since 2017. Richardson said this is the first security incident the hospital has encountered during that nine-year relationship. The vast majority of the Quincy information involved, he said, is archived information from QVMC’s previous electronic medical record system.

That helps explain something some families are already encountering. Letters have arrived for former patients who have died, people who have moved away and, in some cases, people associated with addresses that no longer appear to make sense. These are not necessarily records from a recent visit to the new Quincy Valley Medical Center. In many cases, they reach back into QVMC’s history.

Aesto’s notification says the company experienced a network security incident on or about Dec. 18, 2025, affecting a limited portion of its Amazon Web Services infrastructure. After an investigation involving outside cybersecurity professionals and a manual review of documents, Aesto determined on May 26 that some protected health information may have been accessed or acquired by an unauthorized actor between approximately Dec. 2 and Dec. 18.

The potentially affected information includes patients’ full names and data points such as Social Security numbers and medical record numbers. Aesto says it has no evidence that the information has been misused.

That is the breach described in the letter. What happened next explains why Quincy patients are hearing about it now.

Why Did It Take Until August?

The December date understandably jumps off the page. Read by itself, it can create the impression that QVMC knew about a patient-data problem for months before notifying the community.

According to Bishop and Richardson, that is not what happened.

QVMC says it received its first notification from Aesto on July 7. Even then, Richardson said, the initial information was ambiguous enough that hospital officials did not immediately believe Quincy patient records were among those affected. After reading further, Richardson found language allowing QVMC to request additional information if it believed its data might be involved.

He submitted the request.

Richardson recalled telling Bishop that evening he was “99% sure” the list they received back would contain nothing involving QVMC.

Within roughly 24 hours, they learned otherwise.

The list contained approximately 39,000 records connected to QVMC. Suddenly, the question was no longer whether Quincy was involved.

Bishop said they had to consult with their legal team, the hospital has never had a reportable event. There were no established guidelines, processes or parameters for what they needed to do legal or practically. Bishop noted that the insurance company was surprised it was a new experience for QVMC because data breaches of this nature are not uncommon in the medical profession.

Hospital officials had to determine how to notify tens of thousands of people using information pulled largely from an old medical record system. Bishop said she initially began calculating postage, envelopes, paper and how many employees it would take to prepare 39,000 letters. Richardson’s immediate response was that the hospital would need to buy a folding machine.

The exchange is almost humorous now, but it illustrates the practical problem that landed on a small rural hospital’s desk. QVMC had previously handled a required patient mailing involving hundreds of letters many years ago by having employees print labels and stuff envelopes. This was tens of thousands.

And the list itself was not clean.

Some entries were duplicates. Some contained incomplete addresses. Some former patients had died. Some information had been entered incorrectly years earlier, while other records contained names of departments rather than actual people.

Hospital officials also found old records associated with patients treated around Gorge Amphitheatre events. Bishop said there were years when hospital staff regularly dealt with incomplete addresses or information that did not match a patient’s identification or insurance after concert weekends. Richardson said some patients simply wanted to be treated without providing much personal information. Those old registration problems are still reflected in the archived data today. Bishop used an old computer expression to describe it: “garbage in, garbage out.” Whatever went into those records years ago was still there when the archive produced the list.

QVMC ultimately contracted with a company capable of processing the data, removing duplicates and filtering some invalid addresses and known deceased individuals before handling the massive task of mailing approximately 39,000 letters. Even that could not catch everything. Bishop and Richardson said the hospital has already heard from people receiving letters addressed to deceased relatives or former residents.

That is why a letter showing up at an unexpected address does not necessarily mean someone recently used that address at QVMC. It may simply be the address attached to a historical record when it was created.

The hospital authorized the letters to be mailed Aug. 5.

“We haven’t known for eight and a half months,” Bishop said. “We did respond within the 30-day timeline.”

What Happens After a Vendor Reports a Breach

The situation also offers a look at something patients rarely have reason to think about: what happens behind the scenes when a hospital learns that another company holding its information has experienced a security problem.

For QVMC, this was the first reportable event of its kind, Richardson said. The hospital had to determine what information was involved, consult with insurance representatives, understand its notification obligations and figure out how to contact approximately 39,000 potentially affected people.

Aesto provided the notification-letter templates, but even those were complicated by the age of the data. One version was intended for parents of minors, for example. If the underlying record is decades old, however, someone who was a child when the record was created may be well into adulthood today. Another template addressed deceased patients, but QVMC had no reliable way to identify every person in the historical database who had since died.

Rather than trying to guess, the hospital moved forward with the broader notification.

Bishop said QVMC also carefully reviews the companies that have access to patient information. The hospital reviews its vendor contracts annually, including services that may have only an indirect connection to patients. A company that destroys old documents, for example, may never provide medical care, but it can still come into contact with protected patient information.

Aesto falls under that same scrutiny.

“We carefully vet our vendors, particularly related to information systems, how our records are stored, where they’re stored,” Bishop said. QVMC also has a compliance committee that meets weekly. Richardson serves as the hospital’s security officer, responsible for electronic information security, which is why his name appears on the notification sent to patients.

Those systems existed before this incident. What this event has done is test them in a way the hospital had not previously experienced.

The Letter Is Serious. So Is Getting the Story Right.

There are two facts that have to remain together for the community to understand this incident accurately.

The first is that protected information belonging to current and former QVMC patients may have been accessed through a security incident involving Aesto. Some of that information can include Social Security numbers and medical record numbers. People who receive the letter have every reason to read it carefully and take the recommended precautions.

The second is that QVMC itself was not hacked. Hospital officials say they did not know about the incident when it happened in December and did not receive their first notification from Aesto until July 7. They then had to identify what the notice meant for Quincy, work through approximately 39,000 historical records and arrange notification. The letters were authorized for mailing Aug. 5.

Neither fact cancels out the other.

People across the 98848 have trusted Quincy Valley Medical Center with deeply personal information for decades. Some are now learning that pieces of that history were caught in a security incident at the outside company hired to preserve those records. They deserve to know that happened, what information may have been involved and what precautions they can take.

They also deserve the context behind the words printed across the top of the letter arriving in their mailbox.

For the 98848, that context is important: the notice of a data breach is real, but the breach was not at Quincy Valley Medical Center.

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Sitting inside the Quincy Public Market during the lunch hour, Jazmine Benitez and I spent the first few minutes talking about home. We laughed about people we knew, reminisced about Quincy and tried to put into words that familiar feeling that there is something different about this community. Benitez knows it from several sides. She grew up here, served as a student representative to the Quincy City Council, participated in Quincy Partnership for Youth and has volunteered in the community, including coaching middle school basketball. Now, as Community Equity Coordinator for the Non-Profit CAFÉ, she is bringing another kind of service home to the 98848: helping workers understand rights they may already have but may not know how to use.

On Tuesday, Aug. 18, CAFÉ, the Community for the Advancement of Family Education, will partner with the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries for a free Know Your Rights as a Labor Worker workshop from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Quincy Public Library, 208 Central Ave. S. There is no registration or cost to attend. Snacks will be provided, information will be available in Spanish and English, and attendees will have an opportunity to hear directly from an L&I representative and ask questions about workplace rights.

For Benitez, there was a simple reason to bring the workshop to Quincy.

“I think being a Quincy native, it would be awesome to host something and give back to my community in that aspect,” she said. “Being involved within the community was something that I always enjoyed doing from the start. And so providing that and giving back to my community any way that I can is essential for me.”

TL;DR

• What: Know Your Rights as a Labor Worker workshop

• When: Tuesday, Aug. 18, 5:30–6:30 p.m.

• Where: Quincy Public Library, 208 Central Ave. S.

• Cost: Free; no registration required

• Who: The workshop is open to workers from any industry and people who simply want to learn more about workplace rights

• Language: The presentation will primarily be in Spanish, with English translation available; printed resources will be available in both languages

• What to expect: A presentation, informational resources, food and time for questions

• Partners: CAFÉ and the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries

• Presenter: Alma Castillo, an L&I community representative

• Can’t attend? Jazmine Benitez can be reached at 509-293-7602 for help connecting with appropriate resources

Worker Rights Go Beyond the Farm

Agriculture remains one of the most visible parts of the economy surrounding Quincy, and CAFÉ does significant work with agricultural and H-2A workers. That could make it easy to look at a labor-rights workshop and assume it is intended only for farmworkers. Benitez emphasized that Tuesday’s workshop is not limited to agriculture.

“I invite the entire community to come out,” she said. “This doesn’t just pertain to farm workers. This pertains to anybody, truly.”

That distinction is particularly relevant in the 98848, where agriculture exists alongside food processing, construction, healthcare, education, retail, hospitality, technology and other industries. The workplace may change considerably from an orchard to a construction site, restaurant, school or office, but employees in each can encounter questions about wages, breaks, leave and other protections.

A person also does not need to be involved in a dispute with an employer to attend. In fact, Benitez hopes people will learn this information before they find themselves needing it. Someone who likes their employer and has never experienced a workplace problem is just as welcome as someone who already has questions.

“You just never know what kind of situation you may be placed in,” Benitez said. “Knowing your rights can be something that becomes knowledgeable and you have somewhere to kind of grab, or somebody to reach out to.”

That preventative aspect may be one of the workshop’s most useful lessons. Workplace protections are a little like knowing where the fire extinguisher is before something catches fire. Learning what resources exist during a calm Tuesday evening at the library is considerably easier than trying to identify the right agency, form or phone number after a paycheck is missing or another workplace problem has already developed.

Having Information Isn’t the Same as Knowing How to Use It

Employers are required to make certain workplace information available, but Benitez said simply making information visible does not mean every employee knows how to understand it, use it or ask for help. Through her work, she encounters barriers ranging from literacy and difficulty completing forms to uncertainty about which organization handles a particular problem.

Fear can be another barrier. A worker may recognize that something does not seem right but hesitate to raise the issue because of concern about losing a job or creating problems with a supervisor. Others may not realize that the situation they are experiencing is something they can ask about in the first place.

Benitez pointed to missed breaks and unpaid wages as examples she has encountered through her work. She was careful, however, not to suggest those problems are particularly prevalent in Quincy. When asked specifically whether she had seen many unpaid-wage cases in the Quincy area, Benitez said most of the cases she has personally encountered have been around Wenatchee because she has not yet spent as much time doing this work in her hometown.

“I’m weaseling my way through and hoping to just give out more support and have the community know that I’m here to aid,” she said with a laugh.

Her work also extends beyond traditional wage-and-hour questions. Benitez assists people trying to navigate programs such as paid family and medical leave and other community resources. Sometimes the first problem a person brings to her is not ultimately the problem CAFÉ or L&I can solve. That does not necessarily mean the conversation ends there.

Finding the Right Door When You Need Help

One of the difficulties of navigating workplace problems is that the person experiencing the problem may not know which agency handles it. A question involving wages or breaks may lead in one direction, while another situation could involve an employer’s human resources department, a human-rights organization or a different community resource entirely.

Benitez sees part of CAFÉ’s role as helping people find the correct door rather than expecting them to already know which door they need.

“Sometimes things aren’t necessarily L&I related,” she said. “Sometimes they’re the human rights situation.”

When another organization is better equipped to help, Benitez said CAFÉ can make what she described as a “warm handoff,” connecting the person with an appropriate resource instead of simply telling them to start searching somewhere else.

That approach extends beyond worker rights. As Community Equity Coordinator, Benitez works one-on-one with community members on needs that can include résumé building, job searches, paid family and medical leave, rental or utility assistance, and access to food or clothing. Her definition of community equity is practical: people should be able to reach the resources available to them.

“If we don’t have the response, somebody else within our community has it,” Benitez said. “We’re always willing to connect individuals with other partners.”

That navigation component helps explain why Tuesday’s workshop is about more than memorizing a list of workplace rules. CAFÉ wants people to leave knowing not only that protections exist, but where they can begin when they have a question.

Bringing Labor & Industries Into the Room

Tuesday’s workshop will also remove one of the steps that can make seeking help frustrating: figuring out how to reach the right person inside a government agency.

Alma Castillo, a community representative with the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, will present during the workshop. Castillo is bilingual, and the presentation is expected to be primarily in Spanish. Benitez said English translation will be provided as needed so everyone in the room can follow the discussion, and printed L&I materials will be available in both languages.

For Benitez, having Castillo physically in the room is important because it gives residents direct access to someone who works with these issues. Anyone who has tried to navigate a government agency by telephone knows that even figuring out what question to ask can sometimes be difficult.

“A lot of the time when you call L&I, it’s like hours on the phone waiting for somebody to respond, or they don’t necessarily answer your question in the manner that you wanted it to be,” Benitez said.

At the library, attendees will be able to hear the presentation and then participate in a question-and-answer period. Benitez said there will also be opportunities for people who want additional information about a particular situation to connect directly with those who may be able to point them toward the next step.

For someone who has never interacted with L&I before, that personal connection may be as valuable as the printed material they take home. As Benitez put it, the workshop gives residents a chance to put “a name to the face” and know someone they can reach out to later.

A Quincy Connection to a Regional Organization

CAFÉ is based in Wenatchee and also has a small team working in the Yakima area, but its work extends into Grant County. Benitez said the organization has been serving Grant County for some time, although CAFÉ does not currently have a permanent Quincy location.

Benitez, however, does.

She lives in Quincy and travels between her hometown and CAFÉ’s Wenatchee office. That puts someone who works directly with CAFÉ’s programs and partners inside the community even without a local office.

“We’ve been serving Grant County for a while,” Benitez said. “But I am excited to interact with my own community and give back to the people who have helped me in the past.”

Benitez could not say whether a permanent CAFÉ location in Quincy might eventually be part of the organization’s plans. For now, she hopes to continue bringing workshops and resources into the community and making residents more aware that CAFÉ is available when they need help.

Tuesday’s workshop is one opportunity to begin building that connection. It gives residents a chance to learn about worker protections, but it also introduces people in the 98848 to individuals they can recognize and contact later instead of beginning with an unfamiliar agency or internet search when a problem occurs.

Bringing Something Useful Back Home

Before our interview officially started at the Public Market, the conversation was about Quincy; the people, the community and the difficult-to-define quality that makes this place feel different to those who call it home. Once the recorder came on, it became clear that the same idea was underneath Benitez’s decision to hold this workshop here.

She has gone from participating in Quincy Partnership for Youth and representing students before the City Council to volunteering with young people and now working professionally to connect families and workers with resources. The role has changed, but the connection to the community has remained.

“You may love your job, and everything can be going right, and that’s awesome,” Benitez said. “But if you just wanna know a little bit more, you’re more than welcome to stop in, interact, network, share some thoughts, share some stories, eat some yummy food, and just interact with your community.”

For Benitez, Tuesday evening is an opportunity to bring some of what she now does professionally back to the place where she first learned to be involved. For workers across the 98848, it is an hour at the library to learn something they may never need—but something that could matter considerably if the day ever comes when they do.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Quincy School District to Honor 2026 Wall of Fame Inductees

Quincy, WA – Quincy School District is proud to announce the 2026 inductees into the Quincy School District Wall of Fame. This prestigious honor recognizes individuals and teams who have made outstanding contributions to Quincy athletics and academics, exemplifying the district’s values of excellence and integrity. This year’s class reflects a diverse group of individuals whose accomplishments have made a lasting impact both on and beyond the playing field.

Les Albright

For more than four decades, Les Albright has been a dedicated supporter of Quincy athletics. Whether operating the game clock or volunteering behind the scenes, Albright has been a dependable presence at countless athletic events. His unwavering commitment and countless hours of volunteer service have helped create memorable experiences for generations of Quincy student-athletes and fans. His dedication exemplifies the spirit of community that makes Quincy athletics special.

Paul Collard

Paul Collard is being recognized for his outstanding contributions to athletics as both a Quincy High School student-athlete and one of the Pacific Northwest’s most respected football officials. A three-year varsity basketball starter and co-captain of the 1976–77 Jackrabbit team, Collard helped lead Quincy to a third-place finish at the Washington State Tournament. Following high school, he built an exceptional 22-year career as a football official, earning induction into the Pacific Northwest Football Officials Hall of Fame in 2020. He was also honored with the Washington Officials Association’s prestigious Tom Cross Award, recognizing his leadership and dedication to officiating. His career reflects a lifelong commitment to athletics and sportsmanship.

Nate Harris

Since graduating from Quincy High School in 2003, Nate Harris has become one of the nation’s premier collegiate basketball officials. After beginning his officiating career while still in high school, Harris has spent the past 15 seasons officiating NCAA Division I basketball across some of the country’s top conferences, including the Pac-12, Big Ten, Mountain West, West Coast Conference, and others. He has officiated six NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament appearances, including a Round of 32 matchup between North Carolina and Michigan State. Beyond the court, Harris is passionate about mentoring the next generation of officials and, alongside his wife Jessica, co-founded a ministry dedicated to supporting sports officials nationwide.

Chris Pontarolo-Maag

Chris Pontarolo-Maag is recognized for his athletic achievements, perseverance, and professional success. As the starting point guard for Quincy High School’s 2005 boys basketball team, he helped lead the Jackrabbits to a second-place finish at the State Championship. Determined to continue competing at the highest level, Pontarolo-Maag earned a spot as a walk-on with Gonzaga University’s men’s basketball program, contributing to teams that won the Maui Invitational, captured back-to-back West Coast Conference championships, and advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. After earning degrees in exercise science and finance, he built a successful career at Nike, where he now serves as a lead software engineer specializing in artificial intelligence and machine learning. His journey reflects resilience, determination, and a lifelong pursuit of excellence.

Armondo Tafoya

Armondo Tafoya distinguished himself as an outstanding student-athlete at Quincy High School and continued that success at Central Washington University. A four-year varsity letter winner in football, Tafoya also established himself as one of Quincy High School’s top throwers, setting the school record in the discus and ranking third all-time in the shot put. Despite overcoming injuries early in his collegiate career, he developed into one of Central Washington University’s premier throwers, capturing the 2017 GNAC Indoor Weight Throw Championship. His perseverance, work ethic, and athletic accomplishments make him a deserving member of the Wall of Fame.

Induction Ceremony Details

The 2026 Wall of Fame induction ceremony will be held on September 18 during the Quincy VS. Ephrata football game at Jackrabbit Stadium, where the Quincy School District community will gather to celebrate the achievements of these remarkable individuals and teams. The event is open to the public, and all are welcome to join in honoring the legacy of Quincy’s finest.

This statement is published as an official press release issued by the Quincy School District from the office of Jessica Blancas, Communications Coordinator for the Quincy Washington School District. The content has not been altered, edited, or modified in any way by the staff, ownership, or affiliates of this publication.

This platform is providing public distribution as a public service of this material at the request of the Quincy School District. This platform is not under contract with, an official representative of or associated with the Quincy WA School District

Back-to-school season can get expensive and complicated quickly. Between school supplies, well-child visits, immunizations, sports physicals and everything else that comes with getting children ready for another year, August can put additional pressure on family schedules and budgets across the 98848.

Quincy Community Health Center hopes to make at least part of that process a little easier Thursday when its annual Back to School Health Fair returns to Quincy.

The free community event is designed to help families prepare for the new school year while introducing them to healthcare services, government agencies and other resources available locally. Mary Jo Ybarra-Vega of Quincy Community Health Center said the event is also intended to recognize families who have already taken care of important back-to-school health needs.

“We’re positively reinforcing parents who are getting their kids vaccinated and ready for school,” Ybarra-Vega said. “Basically, we wanna get people ready for back to school.”

TL;DR

• What: Quincy Community Health Center Back to School Health Fair

• When: Thursday, August 13, 2026, from 2–6 p.m.

• Where: Port of Quincy Event Center

• Cost: Free

• School supplies will be available to community families while supplies last.

• Quincy Community Health Center patients who meet the event’s requirements can receive a “golden ticket” for additional back-to-school items.

• Health center departments, community organizations, first responders and the DSHS CSO Mobile team are expected to participate.

• Families can learn about well-child exams, immunizations, sports physicals and other services available through Quincy Community Health Center.

• The event will also include a DJ, professional face painting, prizes and other family activities.

• This year’s theme celebrates the World Cup, and families are encouraged to wear their favorite soccer or team jersey.

More Than a School Supply Giveaway

School supplies will certainly be one reason families come through the doors Thursday, but Ybarra-Vega emphasized that the Back to School Health Fair was built to do more than hand out pencils and notebooks.

The event began more than 20 years ago on a much smaller scale, initially centered around giving away backpacks. Over time, it grew to include health information, community organizations, local partners, entertainment and opportunities for families to learn about services they may not otherwise know are available.

Ybarra-Vega said previous fairs have drawn between 300 and 600 people.

This year, school supplies will again be available to the community on a first-come, first-served basis. With many students now using Chromebooks instead of carrying stacks of textbooks, the health center has also changed some of what it gives away. Chromebook covers will be among the choices available this year, along with some backpacks and age-appropriate school supply packages.

Ybarra-Vega said budgets are tighter this year for both organizations and families, making it especially important to be clear that supplies are limited.

“Going back to school is expensive,” she said, adding that what the health center can provide is intended as a starter for families rather than everything a student will need.

Getting Kids Ready for School Includes Their Health

The other half of the event is right in its name.

Quincy Community Health Center is encouraging parents to use the beginning of the school year as a reminder to check on well-child exams, immunizations and sports physicals.

For health center patients, staff at the fair can also help families who realize they still need an appointment. Ybarra-Vega said staff have previously been able to work with parents at the event to schedule well-child visits, sometimes finding openings the same day or later that week.

Families whose children are already up to date with the health center’s requirements may receive what staff call a “golden ticket.” At the fair, those tickets can be exchanged for a choice of available back-to-school items and supplies.

The idea, Ybarra-Vega said, is to positively reinforce parents who have already taken the steps needed to get their children ready for school while creating an opportunity for other families to get caught up.

The fair is not intended to function as a large on-site health screening event. Ybarra-Vega said factors such as summer heat and wildfire smoke can affect measurements such as blood pressure, so the emphasis this year will be on information, resources and helping families connect with the appropriate services.

Bringing Community Resources Into One Room

Families will also have an opportunity to learn about resources that have little to do with a traditional doctor’s appointment.

Different departments from Quincy Community Health Center will be represented, along with community organizations and partners that work with local children and families. First responders are also expected to participate.

Among those partners is the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services’ CSO Mobile team.

The mobile team can help eligible residents with services including food benefits and assistance for people who are aged, blind or disabled, as well as benefit updates and renewals. Ybarra-Vega said having representatives physically present can make a complicated process much easier for residents who would otherwise have to navigate it by telephone or online.

For someone eligible for food benefits, she said, the difference can be substantial. At a CSO Mobile visit, staff can work through the process in person and, when appropriate, provide an activated benefits card that can be used immediately.

The Back to School Health Fair gives families an opportunity to make those connections while already attending an event designed around children and the start of school.

A Health Fair That Is Supposed to Feel Like a Celebration

Despite the word “health” in the title, families shouldn’t expect Thursday’s event to feel like an afternoon sitting in a doctor’s office.

There will be a DJ, professional face painting, a back-to-school bingo activity and prizes. Ybarra-Vega said there is usually plenty of music and dancing as families move through the event.

This year’s theme looks ahead to the World Cup, and attendees are encouraged to wear a favorite soccer jersey or represent their favorite team. Organizers are even planning a large soccer-ball character for children to take pictures with.

That atmosphere is intentional.

The health center has held the event for roughly two decades, and what began with backpacks and a few activities has developed into a regular community gathering. The fair also coincides with National Health Center Week and gives residents a chance to meet health center staff and learn more about what the organization provides throughout the year.

“I think it’s our opportunity to kinda share about our clinic,” Ybarra-Vega said.

One More Step Toward the First Day of School

August always seems to move faster once the first day of school gets close. Supplies need to be purchased, appointments need to be made, sports begin ramping up and family schedules start shifting from summer back toward the school-year routine. Just today the morning podcast was loaded with multiple pieces of back to school information. School will be back in session sooner than people realize, we are only 15 days out.

The Back to School Health Fair won’t check every item off that list, and organizers are clear that available school supplies are limited.

What it can do is give families across the 98848 one place to ask questions, discover resources, pick up some help for the school year and spend an afternoon together before summer gives way to another school year.

For a community event that started more than two decades ago with a few backpacks, that remains a pretty practical way to help Quincy families get ready.

Quincy Community Health Center Back to School Health Fair
Thursday, August 13 | 2–6 p.m.
Port of Quincy Event Center
Free and open to the community
School supplies available while supplies last.

I spent a lot of time this week thinking about how much has to happen behind the scenes for a community to work.

Most of us only see the part that eventually reaches us. We walk into the Health Center when we need care. We show up for Farmer Consumer Awareness Days every September. We take our kids to programs, drive on roads someone maintains, attend co…

Read more

If you asked most people across the 98848 what Quincy Community Health Center does, the answer would probably be simple: it’s a doctor’s office or a medical clinic.

That answer isn’t wrong. It just isn’t the whole story.

Behind the exam rooms is a team working on mental health, housing, food insecurity, transportation, community education, environmental health, research and outreach. Over more than two decades, some of that work has reached well beyond healthcare and into larger challenges facing Quincy families.

After sitting down with Mary Jo Ybarra-Vega, who has spent more than 20 years working at Quincy Community Health Center, it becomes clear that the clinic has become something many residents may never have considered: an important piece of Quincy’s community infrastructure.

TL;DR

• Quincy Community Health Center provides far more than primary medical care.

· Services available through the health center include medical care, behavioral health, dental care, maternity support, WIC, same-day care, pharmacy services and more.

• The organization serves as a community connector, bringing services and specialists to Quincy that once required traveling out of town.

• Outreach staff have helped address issues ranging from housing and food insecurity to wildfire smoke education and public health research.

• The clinic has helped build partnerships with schools, universities, state agencies and local organizations that continue to benefit residents throughout the 98848.

• Many of those efforts happen quietly, leaving many residents unaware of just how much work takes place beyond the exam room.

More Than Medical Care

Walking into Quincy Community Health Center, it’s easy to assume the building serves one purpose. Patients arrive for appointments, check in at the front desk, meet with providers and head home.

In reality, the clinic functions more like a hub than a destination.

That range of care is reflected in the services available at the Quincy location. According to the health center, those include medical and dental care, behavioral health, maternity support, WIC nutrition services, a pharmacy, a same-day clinic, medication-assisted treatment and a Sliding Fee Discount Program. Access also extends beyond traditional business hours, with the Quincy clinic generally open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, although hours vary by service.

Medical providers, behavioral health professionals, dental professionals, pharmacy staff, outreach specialists and visiting specialists all work under one roof. Some patients receive care entirely at the clinic, while others may never set foot inside the main building because they receive services through the wellness center located at Quincy High School or at their office space across the street from the clinic where I met with Mary Jo Ybarra-Vega.

For Ybarra-Vega, Part of the challenge is simply helping people realize those services exist. As Ybarra-Vega put it, “A lot of people aren’t aware how much we do… People just don’t know.”

“I always tell people we’re like a Super Walmart,” she said. “We have everything inside one place.”

That comparison may sound lighthearted, but it reflects a serious goal. Rather than asking families to travel to Wenatchee or Moses Lake for every specialty appointment, the health center has spent years working to bring more care closer to home whenever possible.

For rural communities, that can mean the difference between receiving care and putting it off.

Solving Problems Before They Become Crises

During the conversation, Ybarra-Vega rarely spoke only about medicine. Instead, she talked about food insecurity, affordable housing, transportation, mental health and the everyday barriers that prevent people from staying healthy in the first place. Those issues, she said, often have a greater impact on health than what happens during a doctor’s appointment.

I went into the interview with questions of my own about the Wellness Center at Quincy High School. As a parent, I knew the clinic existed, but I did not fully understand how it operated, what services were provided there or how parents fit into that process. Ybarra-Vega’s explanation changed the way I looked at it.

“I think when that happened initially, there was lots of conversation, lots of concern,” Ybarra-Vega said. “Our CEO is really good about working with the school district and the community, and the people who had the greatest concerns… We had really great conversations about what we’re doing there and what we’re not doing there.”

She explained that for working parents, missing half a day of work for a medical appointment can mean losing wages needed for rent or groceries. For some workers, she said, missing work once or twice can even put their jobs at risk.

Rather than accepting those realities as unavoidable, the health center has built partnerships designed to reduce them. Ybarra-Vega used my own daughter as an example to explain how the Wellness Center can work for a family with a working parent. “So if you’re a working parent and your kid’s at the high school and you had to go do a story and you couldn’t take your kid to the clinic, you could sign a piece of paper ahead of time where she can be let out of class, she goes down, she sees her provider. You know that you made the appointment for her. After she’s done with the provider, she goes back to class.”

Ybarra-Vega also pointed to the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services’ CSO Mobile team as another example. The mobile team comes to Quincy and helps eligible residents handle benefits in person. In some cases, she said, someone eligible for food assistance can complete the process and leave with an activated benefits card rather than navigating the longer phone or online process. Specialists travel to town instead of requiring patients to travel long distances. Community outreach workers help residents navigate resources they may not know exist.

Ybarra-Vega described the clinic’s role as “being that bridge” to understand what people are saying, how they are struggling and what is happening in the community.

That philosophy extends well beyond healthcare.

Quiet Work That Shapes the Community

Some of the clinic’s biggest contributions have happened outside its walls.

During the interview, Ybarra-Vega described years of research partnerships with universities and other organizations. She said the team’s work has received regional, statewide and national recognition and has included efforts to identify local housing needs. She also discussed working alongside local governments and community partners to help advance affordable housing projects, environmental health initiatives and public education efforts.

One example Ybarra-Vega pointed to is housing. She said work involving the health center, Washington State University and young people from the community helped document local housing conditions and needs. That research eventually reached community leaders and became part of a larger effort involving the city, county and other partners.

Ybarra-Vega connected that work to subsequent ordinance changes and efforts that helped make developments such as Santa Marta Plaza and Casa Quino possible.

“People don’t know that history that our clinic has been involved with,” she said.

For Ybarra-Vega, that history illustrates a broader definition of outreach. It isn’t simply handing someone a brochure or telling them where to call. “Our outreach, I think, doesn’t just mean outreach into community, but also going back and changing systemically things and rules and laws to make things better for all of our community.”

Many residents may never connect those projects back to Quincy Community Health Center. That’s part of the story. Unlike ribbon cuttings or new buildings, outreach work often happens quietly through data collection, meetings, research and partnerships formed long before the public sees the results.

According to Ybarra-Vega, it is work measured less by headlines than by whether families have better access to services than they did a decade ago. Ybarra-Vega said the work has to be led by the community by what residents, providers and families say they actually need.

That approach has shaped everything from health fairs and wildfire smoke education to research partnerships and community resource events that continue to evolve with changing needs.

Built on Relationships

Perhaps the most striking part of the conversation wasn’t the list of programs or services. It was how often Ybarra-Vega spoke about trust.

Ybarra-Vega, a former school counselor, now works alongside women who were once her students and watches them raise children of their own. Outreach staff know neighborhoods, community leaders and the different languages spoken throughout the region.

Ybarra-Vega pointed to outreach staff who have built relationships within Spanish-speaking and Mixteco communities throughout the area, including families around George and the Royal Slope. Those relationships give the health center a way to share information and hear concerns from residents who may not be reached through traditional websites, flyers or public meetings. They know where people gather, how information spreads and, just as importantly, who may not be receiving it.

That local knowledge allows the clinic to reach people who might otherwise remain disconnected from healthcare, government services or community resources. Sometimes outreach is as simple as knowing which trusted community members to contact. Ybarra-Vega said the team regularly uses WhatsApp and relationships with local volunteers and community members to distribute information through networks that already exist. In a community as diverse as Quincy, those relationships matter every bit as much as buildings and equipment.

Looking Beyond the Waiting Room

Every community has organizations that become part of the background simply because they’ve always been there. Quincy Community Health Center may be one of them. For many residents, it remains simply the place where you go to see a doctor.

After spending time talking with Ybarra-Vega about the people and work behind the organization, it becomes clear it is also something more: a community partner that has spent decades helping connect people with resources, bringing services closer to home and working behind the scenes to strengthen the 98848 in ways many residents never see.

Sometimes the organizations making a difference across the 98848 aren’t the loudest. They’re simply the ones that keep showing up, year after year, doing work most people never see and helping hold a community together.

Until a few weeks ago, there’s a good chance you had never heard of Kratom. If you had seen the word at a gas station, you probably assumed it was another vaping or tobacco product and moved on with your day. It is a fair bet you have not thought about it hardly at all and you would be among the majority.

Many residents across the 98848 are likely in that group because a lot of us go about our day too busy to worry about some fad mainly encountered in your favorite service station. In a strange turn of events the word “Kratom” recently appeared on the George City Council agenda earlier this summer. After hearing concerns from the Grant County Health District and discussing the issue over two council meeting, George has taken action and approved an ordinance prohibiting the sale, advertisement and distribution of Kratom products within city limits.

The decision places George among a growing number of local governments nationwide taking action on the herbal substance, while the broader debate over regulation versus prohibition continues across Washington and the country.

TL;DR

• George City Council unanimously approved an ordinance prohibiting the sale, advertisement and distribution of Kratom products within city limits.

• The action followed a presentation from the Grant County Health District at the council’s previous meeting.

• The Grant County Board of Health has encouraged every city and town in Grant County, along with the Grant County Commissioners, to consider similar restrictions.

• Health officials cite concerns about increasingly potent products, youth access, poisonings and the lack of federal regulation.

• Kratom remains legal in many states, and Washington lawmakers have also considered regulating the product rather than banning it.

A Recommendation That Led to Action

The issue first came before the George City Council after the Grant County Health District asked local governments throughout the county to consider restrictions on Kratom products. Health officials told the council they are seeing growing concern over increasingly potent Kratom products, particularly concentrated extracts marketed in convenience stores and smoke shops.

By the time the ordinance returned for a vote on July 16, most of the discussion had already taken place during the council’s previous meeting.

During that earlier meeting, Reece Leavitt of the Grant County Health District presented information about Kratom and explained why the Grant County Board of Health is encouraging local governments to consider restrictions on its sale. Following the presentation, the council directed staff to prepare an ordinance for consideration.

When the ordinance returned to the council a month later, members voted unanimously to adopt Ordinance 2026-01, prohibiting the sale, advertisement and distribution of Kratom products.

Resolution 26-06 urges every incorporated city in Grant County, along with the Grant County Commissioners, to consider restrictions on the sale and distribution of Kratom products because of public health concerns. George is among the first communities in the county to respond to that recommendation.

Whether other communities throughout the 98848 choose to follow George’s lead remains to be seen, but the Grant County Board of Health’s recommendation suggests similar conversations may soon reach other city council chambers across the county.

So What Exactly Is Kratom?

Kratom comes from the leaves of Mitragyna speciosa, a tropical tree native to Southeast Asia. For generations, people in countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia have used the leaves traditionally by chewing them or brewing them into tea.

Today, kratom is commonly sold in the United States as capsules, powders, teas, gummies, beverages and concentrated extracts.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the plant contains compounds that interact with opioid receptors in the brain. At lower doses, users may experience stimulant-like effects such as increased alertness or energy. At higher doses, the effects may resemble those of opioid drugs, including pain relief and sedation. Researchers continue studying the substance to better understand both its potential medical uses and its risks.

Some individuals report using Kratom to manage chronic pain, reduce opioid withdrawal symptoms or improve energy. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved Kratom for any medical use and advises consumers that the products are not regulated as approved medications.

Serving amounts are a common concern in the supplement industry. Many of the supplements you are familiar with such as protein powders, Creatine, CQ-10, Green Tea Extract, Taurine, even common vitamins and many of the things you drink or use in “health” supplements because products vary widely in concentration and formulation, public health agencies say consumers may have difficulty knowing exactly what they are purchasing. Anything in the wrong amounts can cause harm.

Why Health Officials Are Concerned

Those concerns formed the basis of the presentation the George City Council received from the Grant County Health District. In its raw plant form in its native countries, you will only receive so much of the compounds in it through chewing on leaves or making a tea out of dried leaves. What is unknown is what happens when you industrialize it? Health officials say one concern is that concentrated extracts can contain significantly higher levels of active compounds than the raw leaves traditionally consumed in Southeast Asia. Researchers continue studying how those concentrated products compare to traditional use.

According to the Health District, newer products often contain concentrated extracts or enhanced forms of Kratom that are significantly more potent than the raw leaf. Public health officials say those products have contributed to increasing poison center calls, accidental exposures involving children and concerns about dependency and overdose. The district also raised concerns about products packaged in ways that may appeal to young people.

Those concerns mirror warnings issued by several federal agencies. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says more research is needed to fully understand the health effects of Kratom, while the Food and Drug Administration continues to caution consumers about the risks associated with unregulated products and products containing concentrated kratom compounds.

Not everyone agrees that prohibition is the best approach. Kratom advocates argue the product has helped many people manage chronic pain or reduce opioid dependence and contend that product testing, labeling requirements and age restrictions would provide better consumer protection than outright bans.

The debate continues nationwide, with different states choosing different approaches.

Washington Is Still Debating the Issue

George’s action comes as Washington continues discussing how kratom should be regulated.

Rather than banning the substance statewide, legislation introduced in Olympia would establish a Kratom Consumer Protection Act. The proposal would require product testing, establish labeling standards, prohibit sales to minors and ban adulterated products while allowing regulated sales to continue.

Rather than prohibit Kratom, proposed Washington legislation would regulate how products are manufactured, labeled and sold.

The legislation illustrates the broader debate taking place across the country. Some states and local governments have prohibited kratom entirely, while others have focused on regulating how it is manufactured and sold.

George chose the more restrictive approach by prohibiting the sale, advertisement and distribution of Kratom products within city limits. If Washington ultimately adopts statewide regulations, local ordinances may need to be reviewed to determine how they interact with state law.

A Local Decision in a Larger Conversation

The George City Council’s vote did not settle the national debate over Kratom. Instead, it reflected a decision about how one community responds after hearing recommendations from its local public health officials.

As more cities review the Grant County Board of Health’s recommendation, George’s ordinance may become the first example of how local governments in Grant County choose to address the issue. Whether other communities follow that path or pursue regulation instead of prohibition remains an open question.

For many residents across the 98848, Kratom was a word they had never encountered until it appeared on a George City Council agenda. Today, it is the subject of one of Grant County’s newest local ordinances—and likely the beginning of a broader conversation as other communities decide whether to follow George’s lead.

Every year, thousands of people line the streets for the Farmer-Consumer Awareness Days parade, browse vendor booths, admire classic cars, watch the tractor pull and spend the day celebrating Quincy. What most never see are the months of planning or the volunteers who begin preparing the celebration long before the first parade entry rolls down Central Avenue.

With this year’s festival quickly approaching, organizers say now is the time for residents throughout the 98848 to become part of the celebration by registering, volunteering or entering one of the event’s many activities. That message surfaced repeatedly Monday evening as the Farmer-Consumer Awareness Days committee worked through parade logistics, entertainment schedules, vendor registrations, educational exhibits and the countless details that transform months of preparation into one of Quincy’s signature annual events.

TL;DR

• Registration is open for the parade, car show, quilt show and non-food vendors.

• Volunteers are still needed, particularly for Friday evening setup and festival operations.

• Organizers are expanding educational exhibits highlighting local agriculture, geology and history.

• Entertainment plans continue to take shape for festival weekend.

• Early registration helps organizers finalize plans before the event.

A Festival Built by Volunteers

For more than four decades, Farmer-Consumer Awareness Days has celebrated Quincy’s agricultural heritage, but the festival has always relied on something more than tractors, produce and entertainment. It depends on neighbors giving their time to build an event for their community.

That reality became clear throughout Monday’s meeting. Nearly every committee report eventually circled back to the same challenge: finding enough volunteers. Whether the discussion involved setting up vendor booths inside Quincy Middle School, staffing the information booth, coordinating children’s activities or decorating the stage, someone eventually asked the same question: who can help?

Even while working through long checklists, committee members traded stories, teased one another and occasionally paused to solve problems that hadn’t existed five minutes earlier. It was the kind of meeting familiar to anyone who has ever helped organize a hometown event.

Committee members acknowledged that recruiting volunteers has become more difficult as work schedules, school activities and family commitments continue to grow. Beneath those planning discussions was another reality: many of the volunteers who have organized FCAD for years hope to see more people become involved and eventually take the lead so the tradition continues for future generations.

Even so, they remain confident the community will once again step forward, just as it has for decades.

One of the greatest needs is Friday evening, when volunteers help transform the middle school gym into the indoor vendor marketplace. Others are needed throughout the festival to answer questions, assist visitors and keep activities running smoothly.

Now Is the Time to Register

While volunteers remain a priority, organizers are also encouraging residents to register now rather than waiting until the final weeks before the festival.

Applications are currently being accepted for parade entries, non-food vendor booths, car show participants and the popular quilt show. Residents who simply want to lend a hand are encouraged to sign up as volunteers.

The committee also spent time discussing ways to simplify registration after hearing confusion from participants in recent years. Some car show participants believed entering the car show automatically entered them in the parade, while others assumed the opposite. This year, organizers are working more closely with the Quincy Valley Chamber of Commerce to better coordinate registration and make expectations clearer before festival day arrives.

For organizers, every early registration removes another unknown from a long checklist that continues to grow shorter as the festival weekend approaches.

Celebrating the Story Behind Agriculture

Farmer-Consumer Awareness Days has always been about more than entertainment. Organizers continue emphasizing the educational mission continues to emphasize the educational mission that gave the event its name by helping residents and visitors better understand the agriculture that shapes the Quincy Valley.

This year’s educational exhibits will once again feature Washington State Parks and the Ice Age Flood Institute, offering interactive displays that explain how the Ice Age Floods carved the landscape and how irrigation transformed the region into one of Washington’s most productive farming areas.

Visitors will have opportunities to explore three-dimensional relief maps, educational displays, videos and Junior Ranger activities designed for younger visitors. Organizers are also developing self-guided materials allowing families to explore many of the area’s geological landmarks on their own after deciding not to offer a guided tour this year.

The Quincy Valley Historical Society is also expected to participate with a special exhibit recognizing America’s 250th anniversary, connecting local history with the nation’s semiquincentennial celebration.

For many residents of the 98848, those displays tell the story behind the fields, canals and basalt cliffs they pass every day without always knowing how they came to be.

Entertainment and Activities Continue to Take Shape

Planning also continues for a full afternoon of entertainment following the parade.

Current plans include opening ceremonies with Veterans Operation Creation, recognition of this year’s Farm Family and Honorary Farmer, performances by the Quincy Bunnies, Royalty Dance Studio, Quincy Valley Allied Arts student performers, cowboy poetry and music, along with additional community performances still being finalized.

Committee members also reviewed plans for the tractor pull, educational exhibits, children’s activities, the car show and other attractions while working through ways to improve the overall layout of the festival grounds. Several discussions focused on making activities easier for visitors to find while reducing conflicts between attractions that have occasionally competed for space in previous years.

As with every festival, organizers expect the schedule to continue evolving over the coming weeks as final commitments are confirmed.

Looking Ahead

By the time the parade reaches downtown Quincy, most people will only see the finished celebration. They won’t see the planning meetings, volunteer phone calls, registration forms or Friday evening setup crews that made it possible. Those preparations are happening now, and organizers hope more residents of the 98848 will decide to become part of the tradition before festival day arrives.

Farmer-Consumer Awareness Days has always celebrated the connection between agriculture and the community it feeds. Just as important, it has celebrated neighbors working together to build something bigger than themselves. As another festival approaches, organizers are asking a simple question: Who will help carry that tradition forward?

How to Get Involved

Now Accepting

• Parade Entries

• Non-Food Vendors

• Quilt Show Entries

• Car Show Entries

• Volunteers

Looking For

• Friday evening setup volunteers

• Information booth volunteers

• General event volunteers

Where to Register

Registration Forms: https://www.quincyfcad.org/forms

Facebook: Farmer-Consumer Awareness Days

THE HILLTOP

In collaboration with ZGF Architects

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Hilltop Selects ZGF Architects to Design The Grotto, a World-Class Performance Venue Above the Columbia

Concept design is now underway for the concert hall, conceived by the founders of the legendary Gorge Amphitheatre.

QUINCY, Wash. — August 3, 2026 — The Hilltop, a nonprofit where arts, science, environment, and human experience come together, today announced that it has selected ZGF Architects to design The Grotto at The Hilltop, a world-class concert hall and cultural destination rising above the Columbia. Conceived by Vince and Carol Bryan, founders of the legendary Gorge Amphitheatre, The Grotto will bring a new venue to one of the most iconic landscapes in the region.

The Grotto will pair performance with the natural grandeur of its setting. ZGF was awarded the project based on the firm’s extensive experience delivering award-winning cultural, civic, and sustainable architecture that strengthens communities.

Designed to emerge from and connect to the landscape, The Grotto draws inspiration from the basalt cliffs and expansive skies above the Columbia. Inside, the architecture gives way to moments of delight that balance exceptional acoustics with an immersive audience experience.

The Hilltop believes a building in a landscape this extraordinary should give something back to it, and aspires for The Grotto to be the most sustainable performance venue in the country — one designed around energy, water, and materials, and built to last for generations.

“We are thrilled to partner with Vince and Carol and The Hilltop on their extraordinary vision for a landmark arts and cultural destination above the Columbia,” said Haruka Saito, Principal, ZGF. “It’s an incredible honor to help bring their vision to life and deliver a venue that will celebrate the arts, the environment, and the community for generations.”

“We want the environment to be the structure for the architect to work with — not to impose a structure on it, but to look to the environment as it is, embracing the elements where they are, and allowing them to dictate the structure,” said Vince Bryan, founder of The Hilltop. “In ZGF, we found a partner who understands that.”

Concept design for The Grotto at The Hilltop is now underway.

About The Hilltop

The Hilltop is a nonprofit cultural destination Above the Columbia in Quincy, Washington, where arts, science, environment, and the human experience come together. Founded by the team behind the legendary Gorge Amphitheatre, The Hilltop is building two new performance venues overlooking the gorge alongside educational programs and community experiences. Its inaugural SOAR Festival debuts August 22, 2026. Learn more at thehilltop.org.

About ZGF

Climate, context, and community are elemental to every project across ZGF’s diverse portfolio of work. Evolving from one office with strong regional roots in the Pacific Northwest to a global portfolio, the firm’s national reputation was honored with the American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Firm Award, recognizing the firm’s “high standards, humanistic concerns, and unique ability to capture the spirit of a place and the aspirations of its inhabitants.” To learn more, visit www.zgf.com.

Media Contacts

The Hilltop: Heather Finch, Marketing Director, info@thehilltop.org

ZGF Architects: Bailey Thompson, bailey.thompson@zgf.com

Renderings courtesy of ZGF Architects.

It has been about a month since the last Weekly Round Up landed in your inbox, and I owe you an explanation.

The first week away was planned. We finally took a little family vacation after what has been an incredibly busy first half of the year. The second week, sickness worked its way through our house and brought production to a crawl. After that, thou…

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Most people meet a police officer, firefighter or emergency medical provider when something has already gone wrong. Quincy Police Sgt. Joe Westby hopes National Night Out gives residents of the 98848 a chance to meet those same people under much better circumstances.

“We’re more than just the people who show up when something bad happens,” Westby said.

The Quincy Police Department will hold National Night Out from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Monday, Aug. 3, in downtown Quincy. Central Avenue will be closed between B and F streets for the event, which will include free food, music, family activities, public safety vehicles, demonstrations and booths from local agencies and community organizations.

This year’s move from Lauzier Park to downtown reflects that goal. Westby said bringing the event into the heart of Quincy makes it easier for more residents to attend, particularly those living in nearby apartment complexes who may not otherwise travel across town for the event.

TL;DR

• National Night Out will be held from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Monday, Aug. 3, on Central Avenue in downtown Quincy.

• The event is moving from Lauzier Park because of anticipated construction and to make it more accessible to residents living near the center of town.

• Police, fire, EMS, public agencies, health organizations and local support groups are expected to participate.

• Food, ice cream and family activities will be provided at no charge.

• Sgt. Joe Westby said the goal is to build trust, improve communication and help residents recognize the people who may respond when they call for help.

Building Relationships Before an Emergency

Quincy has participated in National Night Out since about 2011. Westby said former Sgt. Fuller helped build a strong foundation for the event before the responsibility eventually passed to him.

National Night Out is held in communities across the country as a way to strengthen relationships between law enforcement agencies and the people they serve. In Quincy, Westby said the event also allows residents to learn about services and support systems available throughout the area.

“Our main core is to protect the community, and to protect the community, the community has got to know us,” Westby said. “This is kind of our highlight event to really engage with the public and let them know who we are and what we are about.”

Westby said police officers are often associated with traffic stops, arrests and difficult calls. National Night Out gives residents an opportunity to see another side of the department and to speak with officers in a relaxed setting.

That familiarity can matter later. Westby said a person facing an emergency may feel more comfortable when the officer arriving at the door is someone they have already met.

“They remember that officer from National Night Out, and they were kind and respectful,” he said. “It brings a lot of ease when we have to respond to calls, especially when people are in their worst time.”

He said those earlier positive interactions can also help officers calm a tense situation and communicate more effectively with the people involved.

Community Engagement Doesn’t End When the Event Is Over

Westby said National Night Out is only the most visible example of a philosophy the Quincy Police Department encourages throughout the year.

He said officers are expected to be part of the community they serve, whether that means stopping into local businesses while on patrol, talking with residents during everyday errands or simply being visible outside of emergency calls.

“If I need something from home, I’ll swing into QHL or Ace or Akins,” Westby said. “I’m still patrolling. If I have the uniform on, it’s, ‘What do you need? How can I help?’”

That approach is familiar to many Quincy residents. Seeing a Quincy police officer picking up supplies at Akins, stopping into Quincy Hardware & Lumber or grabbing lunch while remaining available for calls is a common sight around town. Rather than staying inside patrol cars between calls, Westby said officers are encouraged to become part of the everyday rhythm of the community they serve.

Westby said those everyday conversations build familiarity long before someone dials 911. After more than 16 years with the department, he believes those relationships have made him a better officer. “It really is easier to police the community when you know everybody,” he said.

For Westby, National Night Out is simply an extension of that philosophy. Instead of waiting for chance encounters throughout the year, the event creates one evening where hundreds of residents can meet the officers, firefighters, emergency responders and community organizations that serve the 98848.

Why the Event Is Moving Downtown

National Night Out has traditionally been held at Lauzier Park. Westby said anticipated construction at the park led organizers to consider a different location this year.

Once the department began looking at alternatives, downtown Quincy offered several advantages. The location places the event near apartments and neighborhoods where residents may be less likely to travel to Lauzier Park for an evening event.

“We are dead center in the city now, and everyone can come see us,” Westby said.

Central Avenue will be closed from B Street to F Street, similar to closures used for other downtown community events. Westby said there should be parking available on nearby side streets. The downtown location also creates an opportunity for nearby businesses to participate simply by remaining open and welcoming people into their shops.

Westby said he does not want business owners to feel that they must close because of the street closure. Instead, he hopes they will see the event as a chance to introduce themselves to residents who may not normally stop downtown.

“Those businesses are part of the community,” he said. “They help build us, and if they want to engage with the program and stay open, we encourage it.”

More Than a Police Event

Although the Quincy Police Department coordinates National Night Out, Westby said building partnerships across the community has always been part of the event’s mission.

Westby said the department is intentionally inviting community support organizations alongside first responders because National Night Out is about connecting residents with the resources available throughout the community, not simply introducing them to local law enforcement.

Westby said Grant County Fire District 3, Columbia EMS, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, Washington State Patrol, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Grant PUD and Grant Transit Authority are among the agencies expected to attend.

Local health providers, the Grant County Health District, emergency communications representatives, domestic violence support organizations, colleges, military recruiters, youth groups and recreation programs are also expected to participate.

Westby said the purpose is to bring together the agencies and organizations that help residents during emergencies and in everyday life.

“They are not just there for enforcement,” he said. “They are assets for the community.”

The event is not intended to operate as a commercial market. Westby said he generally avoids inviting outside vendors whose main purpose is selling products because he wants the focus to remain on public service, community resources and relationship building.

Downtown businesses are different, he said, because they are already part of the neighborhood hosting the event. Residents will also be able to receive information about health services, recreation, youth sports, education, transportation and other programs available in the 98848. Food will be provided free of charge. Quincy Partnership for Youth is also sponsoring ice cream from La Michoacana.

Helping Children See Officers as People They Can Trust

Westby said one of the most important parts of National Night Out is giving children a positive experience with police officers and first responders.

He said officers sometimes hear parents tell children that police will take them away if they do not behave. Westby believes that message can make children afraid of the very people they may need to approach for help.

“My job is to be there if they need me,” he said.

Westby believes those positive experiences can last for years. A child who climbs into a patrol car or talks with an officer during National Night Out may someday remember that interaction if they ever need help.

Westby said he wants children to understand that they can approach a Quincy police officer when they are lost, frightened, hurt or in danger. “I do not know one officer in Quincy or the agencies around us that a child could not go to and tell them they need help,” he said.

The event will include activities from local recreation, health and youth organizations. Some youth sports programs are also expected to provide information and registration opportunities.

The Message Behind the Event

Westby acknowledged that National Night Out requires time, coordination and some overtime expense. He said the department maintains normal patrol coverage during the event, with on-duty officers able to stop by when calls allow and off-duty personnel handling many event responsibilities.

He believes the investment is justified because community relationships are part of effective police work, not something separate from it. “Our job is service,” Westby said. “The time and money we put into this is worth the relationship we build with the community to make sure they know we are there for them.”

He said his favorite part of the evening is watching residents discover a service they did not know existed, seeing children become comfortable around officers and observing people from different parts of the community connect with one another.

The vehicles, food and activities may bring people downtown Monday evening, but Westby hopes they leave with something more useful: a better understanding of who will answer when they need help and confidence that those people are already part of the 98848.

Asked what he hopes residents remember after National Night Out is over, Westby didn’t talk about the food, the emergency vehicles or even the downtown location.

His answer was simple.

“We’re here for you.”

Ultimately, that message may be the reason National Night Out continues to grow. The event lasts one evening, but the relationships it is intended to build continue long after Central Avenue reopens. For the Quincy Police Department, that’s the investment they hope will make the 98848 a safer and more connected community.

When I scheduled a visit with Athletic Break-Through owner David Garza earlier this week, I expected to spend an hour learning about a local business before writing a straightforward community profile. Instead, our conversation lasted nearly two and a half hours and ranged far beyond fitness equipment or workout programs. We talked about Quincy, youth athletics, education, business ownership, community growth and the opportunities he believes exist for families in the 98848.

Before we ever started talking, I got my first glimpse of how David operates. He was already working with one of his members when I arrived, greeting others by name as they came through the door. There was no sense that our interview was about to begin which I found refreshing because people usually get a little flustered. Instead, he seamlessly shifted from coaching, answering questions and helping a client to our conversation. The transition was so smooth that I never actually started the former interview. Instead we talked freely for 2 and a half hours.

I’ve spent more than 35 years around gyms. I started lifting weights when I was 11 years old, later became a certified personal trainer, owned my own training business and have interviewed some big names in the fitness industry. Those experiences have made me fairly critical of gyms and trainers because I’ve seen outstanding facilities, mediocre ones, everything in between and the same with certified personal trainers. I thought I had a good idea of what I would find when I walked into Athletic Break-Through.

Athletic Break-Through certainly is a gym, but that’s not what stood out during my visit. What stood out was the way every conversation eventually returned to people. Whether David was talking about a middle school student discovering confidence through physical activity, a high school athlete preparing for the next level, a parent trying to improve their health or another fitness professional looking for an opportunity to grow, the focus consistently came back to helping someone move closer to a goal that mattered to them.

That perspective also helped me understand why David’s three roles in the community fit together so naturally. Most people know him as the owner of Athletic Break-Through, a physical education teacher at Quincy Middle School or the head baseball coach at Quincy High School. After spending time with him, those don’t feel like three separate jobs. They feel like three different ways of serving the same community.

TL;DR

• Athletic Break-Through owner David Garza is also a Quincy Middle School PE teacher and the new head baseball coach at Quincy High School.

• A conversation that began as a business profile became a broader discussion about families, youth athletics and serving the Quincy community.

• Garza’s vision extends beyond operating a gym to creating opportunities for people of all ages to improve their health, performance and confidence.

• Athletic Break-Through is expanding as it continues to grow, with a long-term vision centered on serving the needs of the 98848.

The Nuts & Bolts of Athletic Break-Through

Athletic Break-Through is a gym located in the new industrial park on the south edge of Quincy Washington off of HWY 281. The address is AERO MESA 2606 Main SE Ave, Quincy, WA, 98848 and Google maps will not show you the business name because it is based in the Aero Mesa Warehouse. They have free weights, conditioning equipment, floor area, recover support and more. They are the only gym in town that allows minors with supervision.

ABT offers Group Fitness Training - Adult Strength, Athlete Training (Grades 6-12th) & (College Athletes), Youth Development (Ages 5-7) & (Ages 8-11), Open Gym Slots 7 days/week with 90+ hours available, Personal Training (1-1), Open 24/7

https://www.athleticbreakthrough.com (509)989-7340

A Look Under the Hood

Before meeting with David Garza, it would have been easy to think of him as someone wearing three different hats. Most people around Quincy probably know him in one of three ways. Some know him as the owner of Athletic Break-Through. Others know him as a physical education teacher at Quincy Middle School. Baseball fans are getting to know him as the new head coach of the Quincy High School baseball program.

David’s connection to Eastern Washington runs deep. Raised in Othello, he went on to study at Arkansas State University before coming back and completing his education at Eastern Washington University. Today, he’s raising two sons of his own while balancing life as a teacher, coach and business owner. Those experiences give him a perspective that naturally connects with many of the students, athletes and parents he works with each day.

Spending the afternoon with David, it became clear that teaching, coaching and operating Athletic Break-Through aren’t separate pursuits. Each gives him another opportunity to help people grow, build confidence and reach goals they may not have believed were possible. That perspective explains why our conversation rarely stayed focused on the business itself.

David repeatedly returned to the idea of people reaching their goals. Sometimes it was a middle school student discovering confidence. Other times it was a high school athlete chasing the next level or an adult deciding it was finally time to improve their health. Regardless of age or ability, he saw each person as capable of more than they believed.

That same outlook extends beyond the people who walk through the front door of Athletic Break-Through. During our conversation, David spoke about creating opportunities for other professionals as well. Rather than trying to be the expert in every aspect of health and fitness, he envisions Athletic Break-Through as a place where trainers, recovery specialists and other professionals can work together to better serve the community. It’s an approach that recognizes no one person has every answer and that people often achieve more when they combine their strengths.

Athletic Break-Through wasn’t built around a particular style of fitness. It was built around the idea that every person has different goals, different abilities and different challenges. Instead of asking people to fit into one training philosophy, David has tried to create an environment that adapts to the individual.

By the end of our conversation, I found myself thinking less about the business and more about the person behind it. The next question wasn’t what Athletic Break-Through offers today. It was how David came to build a place that looks so different from many of the gyms I’ve visited over the years.

Building the Kind of Place He Couldn’t Find

One of the things that became clear during our conversation is that Athletic Break-Through wasn’t created just because David Garza wanted to own a gym. It grew out of years spent studying health and fitness, working with people and recognizing that many facilities are built around a single philosophy rather than the individual walking through the front door.

Most gyms eventually develop a particular identity. Some become known for bodybuilding. Others attract powerlifters, CrossFit athletes or endurance athletes. Athletic Break-Through was designed with a different philosophy.

Rather than asking people to adapt to the gym, he wanted the gym to adapt to the person. That means the high school athlete preparing for a new season doesn’t necessarily need the same program as the parent trying to improve their health after years away from exercise. A middle school student learning proper movement patterns has different needs than an adult recovering from an injury or someone training for their first 5K. The goal isn’t to convince everyone to train the same way. The goal is to help each person make progress toward their own objectives.

That philosophy influences far more than the workouts themselves. Throughout our conversation, David returned repeatedly to the idea that long-term success comes from meeting people where they are instead of expecting them to begin at the same place. That thinking also explains why Athletic Break-Through continues to evolve. During our walk through the facility, David showed me the neighboring space that will become part of the gym’s next expansion. More square footage certainly creates room for additional equipment, but that wasn’t how he described it. Instead, he talked about creating opportunities for more programs, additional coaches and services that aren’t currently available in Quincy.

One example that stood out involved recovery services. David described conversations with a young professional who specializes in massage therapy, blading and other recovery techniques that complement strength and conditioning. Rather than viewing those services as separate businesses, he sees them as pieces of a larger picture. Someone working to improve their health or athletic performance often benefits from more than one area of expertise, and his long-term vision is to make those resources easier to access in one place.

That willingness to collaborate says as much about David as it does about his business. Many owners naturally focus on building an organization around themselves. David spoke instead about building something that could include people with different experiences, specialties and perspectives. He readily acknowledged that he doesn’t have every answer, and he doesn’t believe one person should. If another professional can better serve a member’s needs, he wants them to be part of the solution.

As we stood in the coming expansion, I began to realize that Athletic Break-Through isn’t simply expanding because it needs more room. It is expanding because David believes the needs of the community will continue to grow. His vision isn’t limited to adding equipment or increasing membership. It is about creating a place where families, students, athletes and adults can find the guidance and support they need without leaving the Quincy area.

That idea kept bringing me back to the same question.

If David’s vision is larger than a traditional gym, what does he believe Quincy could become over the next decade, and how does Athletic Break-Through fit into that future?

Walking Through Athletic Break-Through

David’s enthusiasm is contagious. He laughs easily, moves quickly, points excitedly from one area to the next when sharing Athletic Break-Through. He is genuinely energized every time another member walks through the front door and greets them by name before picking up our conversation exactly where we left off.

I found myself noticing the equipment. Years of lifting weights and working in the fitness industry naturally draw my attention to squat racks, conditioning equipment and how a gym is laid out. David certainly talked about those things, explaining why he had chosen particular pieces of equipment and how different tools could help people with different goals, but that was rarely where the conversation stayed for long.

One conversation led to youth athletes and teaching proper movement before adding weight. Another shifted to adults who simply want to become healthier after years of putting everyone else’s needs ahead of their own. We talked about families working toward healthier lifestyles together instead of separately. Even discussions about future equipment quickly turned into conversations about what additional opportunities those investments could create for people in Quincy.

That pattern continued as we walked through every space. David talked instead about possibilities. More room meant the ability to expand programs, welcome additional members and eventually create space for services that are difficult to find locally. His goal isn’t simply to expand Athletic Break-Through. It was to create better access to services that help people recover, stay healthy and continue making progress toward their goals.

By that point in the afternoon, we hadn’t spent two and a half hours talking about fitness. We had spent two and a half hours talking about people, and Athletic Break-Through simply happened to be where those conversations took place

Looking Ahead

One of the reasons our conversation lasted as long as it did is that David wasn’t focused only on where Athletic Break-Through is today. Much of what we discussed centered on where Quincy is headed and how the business can continue growing alongside the community.

Today, that growth is becoming visible. Membership has continued to increase, youth programming has expanded and the facility is already growing into additional space. During our walk through the building, it was easy to see that the expansion isn’t being driven by a desire to simply add more equipment. David talked far more about creating opportunities than filling square footage.

Families continue to move into the area. Young people are looking for opportunities to develop their skills close to home. Adults want more options to improve their health without regularly traveling to larger communities. Rather than waiting for someone else to create those opportunities, David is trying to build them here.

That outlook also helps explain why he doesn’t talk about Athletic Break-Through as a finished product. Throughout the afternoon, he described ideas that are still taking shape. Some involve expanding youth athletic development. Others focus on recovery services, additional coaching or bringing other professionals into the facility so members have access to more resources in one location. None of those ideas are presented as guarantees or promises. They’re simply the next steps in a vision that continues to evolve.

As our conversation wound down, I found myself thinking about how often successful communities are shaped by people who see possibilities before everyone else does. They look at an empty building and imagine something different. They see needs that aren’t being met and begin working toward solutions, even when the outcome isn’t guaranteed.

Looking Beyond the Building

When I pulled into the parking lot at Athletic Break-Through, I thought I was there to learn about a gym. That’s a reasonable assumption. From the outside, that’s exactly what it appears to be.

The afternoon wasn’t really about strength training, memberships or expansion plans. Those subjects came up, but they weren’t what stayed with me. What I’ll remember is a conversation with someone who sees teaching, coaching and business ownership as different ways to serve the same community. Athletic Break-Through happens to be where those paths come together.

Most business owners can explain what they do. The ones who leave a lasting impression are the people who can clearly explain why they do it. Spending an afternoon with David Garza left me convinced that his “why” has very little to do with owning a gym and everything to do with helping people become stronger, healthier and more confident than they were yesterday.

In a warehouse on the edge of town, a teacher, coach and business owner is investing his experience in the people of Quincy. Whether you’re a parent looking for opportunities for your children, an athlete working toward the next level, someone trying to improve your health or simply a resident who appreciates seeing local people invest in their community, that’s worth knowing.

Sometimes the most important stories in the 98848 aren’t the biggest stories. They’re the ones quietly taking shape every day, often without much attention, until someone takes the time to stop, listen and understand what is really being built.

David walked with me back to my truck, and somewhere between the front door and the parking lot the conversation shifted to an injury I’d mentioned earlier that has kept me out of the gym. I’d spent the afternoon asking questions about his business, yet as we wrapped up, his attention had turned to helping me. It was a small moment, but it struck me that it perfectly reflected everything we’d spent the afternoon talking about.

The gym, the expansion and the plans for the future all matter, but they’re really tools for something bigger. They exist to serve the people who walk through those doors. That’s what I came away with at Athletic Break-Through, and why I believe David Garza’s story is really a story about investing in the people of the 98848.

The volunteers behind Quincy Youth Basketball received regional recognition this week for something many families in the 98848 have already experienced firsthand: creating opportunities for young children to learn, play and grow through sports. During the Quincy School Board meeting, the North Central Educational Service District (NCESD) presented the organization with its Friend of Children Award.

The award was presented by NCESD Superintendent Dr. Michelle Price, who recognized Quincy Youth Basketball’s commitment to serving young children and strengthening the community through youth athletics.

Recognizing Service Beyond the Classroom

Each year, the North Central Educational Service District Board of Directors accepts nominations for its Friend of Children Award, which honors community members and organizations that go above and beyond to support children outside the traditional classroom.

NCESD serves school districts across Chelan, Douglas, Grant and Okanogan counties, and this year only two Friend of Children Awards were presented across the entire four-county region.

While presenting the award, Dr. Price praised Quincy Youth Basketball for revitalizing the local program and creating opportunities that many children might not otherwise have.

She highlighted the organization’s commitment to teaching sportsmanship, encouraging healthy physical activity and providing a positive environment where children can begin learning the fundamentals of teamwork and athletics. The program currently serves children from pre-kindergarten through second grade

Building More Than Basketball Skills

Although the award recognizes a basketball program, the comments during the presentation focused on something much broader than the game itself.

Dr. Price noted that organizations like Quincy Youth Basketball help children develop confidence, learn how to work with others and experience positive competition in a supportive environment. Those lessons often extend well beyond the basketball court and become building blocks for future success in school and life.

The recognition also reflects the countless volunteer hours invested by coaches, organizers and parents who have helped grow the program into an important part of the community.

A Well-Deserved Honor

Community awards often recognize years of quiet service that happens away from the spotlight. This recognition from the North Central Educational Service District celebrates the volunteers who have worked to build a welcoming youth basketball program and create positive experiences for Quincy children.

As Dr. Michelle Price told the group during the presentation, “This community’s a better place because of you.” Judging by the regional recognition and the young athletes who have benefited from the program, it’s a sentiment many families throughout the 98848 would likely agree with.