By Susan DeRemer
As the Santa Monica Lions Club waits patiently for people to become vaccinated and the ability to safely resume our community activities, we have continued to look for ways to help the Santa Monica community. As part of a Lions clubs International effort to provide food for those in need, our the SM Lions members contributed $400 to Feeding Families – SM. Knowing how food donations can vary from week to week, we decided to give them money to be used to fill out whatever food needs they had within a given week.
Feeding Families SM was established at the beginning of the pandemic when Suzie Crocker, a pastor from Hope United LA, contacted Cheryl Byrne with some pre-packaged food she wanted to offer to any families Chery knew that might need it. Cheryl, along with Marie Espino and Karen Miller, reached out the Grant Elementary School’s community liaison, and the rest is history. They have continued to distribute weekly boxes of fresh and packaged food items to families in need throughout the pandemic, growing from a small group that worked out of Marie’s garage, to a larger group of volunteers working out of Hope United LA to assemble the boxes. If you are interested in learning more, volunteering and/or donating, go to their Facebook site - facebook.com/feedingfamiliessm.
Monthly regular evening meetings have resumed for the SM Lions, however, they are still by Zoom to keep everyone safe. Earlier this month we were happy to have long-time resident and professor at Santa Monica College, Terry Green, as our speaker. He shared his experiences growing up in Santa Monica and what kept drawing him back to his favorite community. We learned how his father’s teaching career led to his own love of teaching, both at John Adams Middle School and Santa Monica College (known then as Santa Monica Community College). One of his proudest contributions to education was creating developmental math to make learning more accessible for all students. It was an enjoyable evening and he is a good storyteller with a great sense of humor.
If you think you might want to join us the 2nd Thursday of each month at 6 p.m. for a Lions meeting, please reach out to Yoriko Fisher at yorikofisher@gmail.com or 443-883-1101. We welcome guests, at no charge, and for those that are interested in joining, we are offering special memberships rates during the pandemic.
