PORT TOWNSEND – It is a warm summer night, and the tavern door is propped open.
Inside, people are sitting on vinyl-topped stools around the wooden bar, talking and sipping beer.
The click-click of pool balls can be heard in the back.
Around the walls, television screens silently beam the Mariners’ game into the room.
But all eyes are on Judy Lundren when she steps over to a little metal contraption and begins to spin it.
Opening it and choosing a plastic ball, Lundgren shouts “G-52,” raising her voice to add an extra “oo” on the end.
“Two-oo!” everyone echoes.
It’s bingo night at the Hilltop Tavern, where the bingo is free, the beer is cheap and the prizes are cool.
And for a chaser, Lundren offers people the chance to kick in a dollar or two for a worthy cause – the Port Townsend Library.
“I’m here every Wednesday for bingo, and get an extra bingo card every time,” said Gino Erreca, who was sitting at the bar with his wife, Nancy.
“Everything Judy does seems right to me.”
Lundgren owns the Hilltop Tavern with her husband, Pat, and has always held free bingo nights.
But to raise money for a Relay for Life team, she carried around a coffee can for donations when she gave out bingo cards at the weekly game nights.
As a thank you, people who donated received an extra card.
“I raised more than $2,000 for Relay,” Lundgren said.
When Theresa Percy, the Port Townsend Library director, saw a sign about the fundraiser, she asked Lundgren if she would want to do a similar collection for a library project.
“She said sure,” Percy said. “Then she asked, ‘What should the project be?’ “
