As the proceeds from the 11th annual Arlington Drag Strip Reunion and Car Show were distributed to various community groups, Bill Kinney reflected on what that money has meant to the Arlington Boys & Girls Club.
“This has been our most exciting year yet,” said Kinney, director of the club. “My goal for the past few years has been to get us a new building. I want to leave this place in better shape than I found it.”
Kinney recalled that when the club started in Arlington, the city only had about 2,000 residents. Twenty-four years later, the club has 2,400 members.
Kinney conducts the car show in conjunction with the Port Gardner Vintage Auto Club each September. They distributed $12,630 last February, and they expect to dispense an estimated $13,800 before the show this fall.
Sue Keezer of the Arlington food bank and Dell Deierling of the Marysville food bank credited these monies with helping them serve not only Thanksgiving and Christmas meals, but also backpacks full of food for school kids over weekends.
“Unfortunately, we’re still a growing business,” said Deierling, who noted that 13 Marysville, Tulalip and Lakewood schools have received 9,000 backpacks and 72,000 pounds of food among them.
Keezer pointed out that last year’s move to a new food bank facility in Arlington, coupled with the demands of the Oso slide, complicated their work further.
“Without what you’ve given us, we wouldn’t have been able to provide for our clients,” said Keezer, who reported that Arlington served 5,000 people, including 295 Thanksgiving baskets and 258 Christmas baskets.
Chuck Nichols, faculty advisor for the Marysville-Pilchuck High School auto shop program, has been able to expand the program to serve all six high schools in the district.
“It’s the first year in some time that we’ve had girls in the program,” said Nichols, who acknowledged how underrepresented women are in auto repair.
Among the other charities that benefitted from this year’s donations were the Burned Children Recovery Foundation, Cocoon House, Project Hope, the Animal Rescue Foundation, the Everett Firefighters Association and the Boys & Girls Club of North Everett.
