Editor,

The Oak Harbor Lions Club is a “can-do” organization. The club’s commitment to service, combined with a wealth of skills, has made a great difference to our program at Toddler Learning Center.

For the past 33 years, our agency has provided therapy, education and family support services to Whidbey Island infants and toddlers who experience developmental delays. When a project arises, the Oak Harbor Lions Club provides the support and assistance needed to the Toddler Learning Center which makes our services possible for young children.

When our new facility was being built in 1990, the Oak Harbor Lions put in the subflooring, built a therapy platform, outfitted our therapy room, provided funds for floor covering, and painted the interior of the building. We could not have opened our doors without them.

Over the years, they continued their support, helping us to replace our badly worn carpet in 2005 and repairing playground equipment so that our little ones could swing, slide and climb safely. The Oak Harbor Lions have also helped individual families in our program get much needed glasses or hearing aids for their children.

They cared and made it happen.

In 2010, we were in the midst of completing a small addition to our facility. A small but capable group of Oak Harbor Lions worked hard to update our building for the children.

They patched walls, pulled off baseboard for replacement, and did a beautiful job of painting the inside walls to help give a fresh and modern look to a much-used facility.

In 2015, our old play yard needed to be dismantled.

This was a big project that the Lions organized with the Skagit Valley College maintenance staff. Slides and play gyms needed to be dug up. Rubber matting needed to be pulled and the cement underneath broken into pieces and then removed.

Large construction equipment was needed for this project and the Lions provided it.

Our most recent project, the replacement of our play yard fence, was taken on by the Oak Harbor Lions Club.

The group of volunteers measured the area, consulted with the Skagit Valley College maintenance staff, provided us with the specifications on ordering of the materials and last but certainly not least, took down the old fence and put in the new.

Many people have described service organizations as some of the “thousand points of light” in our society. In our experience, the Oak Harbor Lions are much more — more like a rescue boat with capable hands doing a great job in our community.

Their wealth of skills is only matched by their caring hearts.

Rene Denman, staff and board of directors

Toddler Learning Center

Oak Harbor