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Lions Club members put in 2 pieces of play equipment at park

Published 1:30 am Friday, April 28, 2017

By Kari Bray

Lions Club volunteer Roy Johnson (center) gets some help tightening spring mounting bolts on a play structure from Ray Drake (right), who is with Arlington Maintenance and Operations, earlier this week. Other Lions volunteers Maxine Jenft (green), local Lions President Joan Flesher (back left) and 40-year member Donna Knight tidy up the bark as they near completion of their work on a new children’s playground at Terrace Park in Arlington. (Dan Bates / The Herald)
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Lions Club volunteer Roy Johnson (center) gets some help tightening spring mounting bolts on a play structure from Ray Drake (right), who is with Arlington Maintenance and Operations, earlier this week. Other Lions volunteers Maxine Jenft (green), local Lions President Joan Flesher (back left) and 40-year member Donna Knight tidy up the bark as they near completion of their work on a new children’s playground at Terrace Park in Arlington. (Dan Bates / The Herald)

Lions Club volunteer Roy Johnson (center) gets some help tightening spring mounting bolts on a play structure from Ray Drake (right), who is with Arlington Maintenance and Operations, earlier this week. Other Lions volunteers Maxine Jenft (green), local Lions President Joan Flesher (back left) and 40-year member Donna Knight tidy up the bark as they near completion of their work on a new children’s playground at Terrace Park in Arlington. (Dan Bates / The Herald)
Lions Club volunteer Roy Johnson (center) gets some help tightening spring mounting bolts on a play structure from Ray Drake (right), who is with Arlington Maintenance and Operations, earlier this week. Other Lions volunteers Maxine Jenft (green), local Lions President Joan Flesher (back left) and 40-year member Donna Knight tidy up the bark as they near completion of their work on a new children’s playground at Terrace Park in Arlington. (Dan Bates / The Herald)

ARLINGTON — Volunteers with the local Lions Club spent a day last week with rakes and wrenches, bolts and beauty bark.

They put in two new pieces of play equipment for young children at Terrace Park, off E. Fifth Street. It’s a popular spot for live music, movies and Shakespeare in the Park.

The Arlington Lions Club, with 26 members, adopted the park a couple of years ago. Members clean and landscape before July 4 each year to get it ready for summer events.

This year, they wanted to do something more. Lions Club International is celebrating its centennial, and local clubs are urged to do a legacy project. The Arlington Lions have been around nearly as long as the international service organization. The local club will celebrate 90 years next year, said Joan Flesher, Arlington Lions Club president.

For their legacy project, the club raised money to buy new play equipment, which they volunteered to install. One piece is a black and yellow teeter-totter, the other a springy toy in the shape of a chipmunk that children can ride on.

City workers prepared the play area at the park with cement and groundwork. Volunteers gathered at 8 a.m. last week to put the equipment in place and rake beauty bark around it. Roy Johnson, a 10-year member of the club, checked the bolts and found a couple in need of tightening. He worked with the city maintenance staff to tighten them.

Maxine Jenft, the city’s volunteer coordinator and a Lions Club member, organized the project.

“We wanted to put in a few toys for the smaller kids,” she said. “Our goal as the Lions Club is we just try to help our community in any way we can.”

The Lions also collect donated eyeglasses throughout the year, then clean and send them off for distribution to people in need around the world. The club does several fundraisers each year and always is looking for new members, Flesher said.

“It’s hard to get younger people involved,” she said. “A lot of clubs are in the same boat right now.”

Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.

Join the club

Anyone interested in joining the Arlington Lions Club can attend a meeting at 6:30 p.m. on the second Wednesdays of each month, or at noon on the fourth Tuesdays. The meetings are at the city public works building near Haller Park.

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