EVERETT — As the proceeds from the 12th annual Arlington Drag Strip Reunion and Car Show were distributed to various community groups, Bill Kinney reflected on how that money has contributed to an extended campaign of fundraising for the Arlington Boys & Girls Club.
Kinney, director of the club, conducts the car show in conjunction with the Port Gardner Vintage Auto Club each September. They handed out $9,100 in checks to 10 area charities Feb. 9, which Kinney praised for capping off the roughly $5 million raised for the club over the past five years.
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 of food for school kids over weekends.
Deierling estimated that 400 Marysville, Tulalip and Lakewood students receive weekend meals each week.
“When our business is down, we consider it a good thing,” he said. “Unfortunately, conditions are getting worse for the families we’re still seeing, many of whom are homeless.”
Keezer reported that Arlington serves weekend meals to 125 kids each week, but added that more than 21 percent of its clients are older than 55.
“Without what you’ve given us, we wouldn’t have been able to provide for our clients,” said Keezer, who noted that this included 290 Thanksgiving baskets and 252 Christmas baskets.
Chuck Nichols, faculty advisor for the Marysville-Pilchuck High School auto shop program, pointed out that this marked the second year his program has been able to serve all six high schools in the district.
“Before, the kids who enrolled at Getchell were cut off from our program,” Nichols said. “Since last year, we’ve been busing all the other high school kids to Pilchuck.”
Nichols will receive $1,000 for his program as soon as the two scholarship recipients for this year are selected.
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, the Boys & Girls Club of North Everett and the North Cascades Concert Band.
