A couple of weeks prior to Oct. 15, 2005, signs started cropping up all over Yakima advertising Operation Harvest, an annual city-wide food drive. This is the fifth year the Yakima Braves Pathfinder Club has helped with this community activity, and their presence is always very much appreciated.

This year 40 Pathfinders and 14 staff participated. The Pathfinders are available, with other local volunteers, to unload cars delivering bags of food and repack the food into boxes that are then stacked on pallets. The food is then distributed to seven local area food banks, including the Yakima Adventist Food Bank.

The local TV stations and local newspaper cover the event, and the young people are always excited to see who got to be on TV or in the paper. This year, 9,300 pounds of food was picked up, and $27,000 was donated.