Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl cut the ribbon last week on a brand new kitchen for Mary Lou’s Place, the YWCA Evanston North Shore’s domestic violence shelter for women and their children.

 The kitchen, which serves more than 50 meals a day, was gutted and refitted with brand new appliances, flooring, countertops and cabinetry. “The message we hope to give our residents is that Mary Lou’s Place is a place of support, a nurturing and healing environment that says we, as a community, care,” said Karen Singer, executive director of the YWCA Evanston/North Shore. “Thanks to the Evanston Lighthouse Rotary, who not only funded the project with a grant of $35,000 but brought hammers and crowbars and did the demolition and then and got up on ladders to paint, the kitchen is now a beautiful hearth for the women and children staying here,” she added. Also thanked were architects Behles and Behles and painters from Paint Jar for their generous support of the project.