They called themselves Taco Cats, and they came to help Zintel Canyon

They are the Taco Cats, and they came to Zintel Canyon to help.

A group of five third- through fifth-grade students brought bags, a sign-up sheet and a desire to make the 68-acre park a cleaner and safer place for wildlife.

The students – Rachel Bultena, Christopher Salisbury, Eben Perdue, and Brady and Kauner McDonald – are all part of Kennewick’s Mid-Columbia Partnership, and they are participating in Destination Imagination.

The class puts small groups of students together to work on endeavors ranging from robotics to service projects.

The Taco Cats chose to do a service project competition with a goal of helping wildlife. After a series of fires burned more than 10 acres in Zintel Canyon this spring and summer – and seeing litter encroaching on the area – they decided to make it their project, Kauner said.

It’s something Aftyn McDonald saw as well. A parent and group leader, she’s become more concerned in recent years over allowing her children to range too far. It was something that made her children sad, since the canyon reminded them of exploring the forests around their cabin in the Clearwater National Forest in Idaho.

When they decided to pick a project as part of their Destination Imagination class, they chose a service project at the beginning of October.

So they reached out to Park Middle School Teacher Jeff Wiens, who also was leading an effort to clean up the park. His effort to create a neighborhood watch led to a cleanup in the summer, and he’s been continuing to stay involved in the city’s efforts to clean the park.

After talking to Wiens, the Taco Cats went to Ian Dezember with the city’s parks department. Dezember got them gloves and trash bags, and the Taco Cats made signs and prepared for cleaning the park.

They showed up with bags, gloves, a sign-up sheet and snacks. Rachel made the sign, and Kauner was manning the booth as they welcomed their first 23 volunteers. They found broken chairs, metal bars and clothes, and several other bags of garbage strewn through the woods.

Rachel was ready to go deep into the woods to find trash to pick up, she said.

And Kauner was hoping to see big crowds.

The bags are going to be picked up by the Kennewick Parks Department, and the Taco Cats will turn their experiences into a skit, which they will perform during a March competition.

Why are they the Taco Cats? Well it started with Eben’s T-shirt, which says, “Tacocat is Tacocat spelled backward.”

This story was originally published November 3, 2018 at 7:35 PM with the headline "They called themselves Taco Cats, and they came to help Zintel Canyon."