Letter to Editor | Thank you to Orcas Island Lions Club, our community partner

||| FROM INGRID MATTSON and LYNNETTE WOOD |||

Just as no person is an island, no community organization is an island here on Orcas. We all do better when we look to each other for opportunities for connection and collaboration. Recently the Lions Club partnered with our respective organizations (the Orcas Island Library and the Orcas Senior Center) to help further our missions. Their generous support will make a difference in the lives of Orcas Islanders of all ages.

The Lions Club donated $2,500 to the Ken Gibbs Memorial Fund for Youth Science Education, partnering with the Library to provide community youth with greater science education opportunities. The larger the fund, the greater the number of books and programs the Library can provide. We appreciate the Lions’ support of our youngest patrons.

The Lions care about helping people of all ages on Orcas Island. The Lions also set up a generous matching grant to help fund renovations of the Orcas Senior Center. Such renovations will help the center expand its programs and services into new areas, and to a wider clientele.

You may know the Lions Club for bringing Santa to the Orcas Island Ferry Landing each Christmas, the Moran State Park Easter Egg Hunt, tent rentals, and an Annual Salmon BBQ. Here on Orcas they also support community members of all ages by providing a huge range of mobility equipment (regardless of your age), encourage literacy by reading to Kindergarteners, provide scholarships to local high school students, provide a free/low-cost tax clinic, and much more (see https://orcaslions.org/projects/).

They also support their fellow community organizations, and for that we are so grateful. Thank you, Lions Club!