A recent letter to the editor expressed concern about what the writer saw as the sudden shutdown of the North Everett Lions Club Bingo Hall. The writer concluded that she would never again support a Lion’s Club function. Unfortunately, this letter obscures the incredible community good that the Lion’s Club and the patrons of its Bingo Hall have done over the past several decades.
We at Cocoon House, for example, are deeply indebted to the Lions Club. As a matter of fact, the vision that was to become Cocoon might never have been realized without their support. In 1991, when Cocoon’s founder, Sarri Gilman, was looking for supporters to help her buy a badly needed shelter for our community’s homeless teens, the Lions Club stepped forward. Rather than make a contribution, the club purchased a home that became and still is our community’s only shelter for homeless youth! To date, that shelter has provided a safe refuge off the street for well more than 1,500 young people.
And last year when Cocoon House asked our community to support our efforts to build two new shelters for the increasing number of homeless youth on the streets, the Lions Club stepped up again with a wonderful $50,000 gift to help keep our young people safe. Moreover, this gift was one of the keys to the agency receiving a $500,000 challenge grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Cocoon House is just one of many community organizations to have benefited from this kind of support. We want to express our deepest thanks to the North Everett Lions Club and to the patrons of its Bingo Hall for all they have done on behalf of our community’s most vulnerable youth. They have truly made a difference.
Lee Trevithick
Executive Director
Cocoon House
Everett
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