Go-getter Kilson keeps Louis Barett tenants active

LYNN – When Joanne Kilson spotted a fire inspector in her apartment building, she gathered up balloons left over from a party and presented them to the inspector as a token of thanks and respect for all firefighters, especially the 19 killed on June 30 fighting wildfires in Arizona.”I got up and saw the news about the firefighters – all those kids – and got so upset,” she said.Lynn Fire Chief James McDonald wrote to Kilson, praising the Louis Barett building tenant as one of “?the great residents of the City of Lynn,” but Barett property manager Joan Ellis said Kilson is always thinking about other people, including neighbors and fellow tenants.She credited Kilson, 73, with helping to revive the 152-resident apartment building’s tenant association. Kilson’s organizational skills and energy boosted the association treasury to $1,000 and Kilson said she has her sights set on raising $2,000 for building holiday parties.”The association has been more active in six months than it has in three years,” Ellis said.Kilson spruced up Barett’s community room, working with building management to put a fish tank in the room and decorating the common area shared by tenants.”She also puts coffee out in the morning for tenants,” Ellis said.Medical conditions that confine her to a wheelchair cannot stop Kilson from helping tenants organize Bingo games, ice cream socials, and Mother’s Day and Father’s Day dinners.”I’m on the go more than someone with two legs,” she said.Kilson’s perpetual list of projects in progress is no surprise to daughter and fellow Barett tenant Dahlia Nash.”She’s a go-getter – she’s always trying to get people to come out of their apartments,” Nash said.Nash is Kilson’s only child but she has four children and 13 grandchildren who recently threw their great-grandmother a birthday party. Kilson grew up in Lynn and lived in Boston and, later, California, where she worked in nursing before returning to Lynn where she has lived in the Barett building on Washington Street for 14 years.Her longtime interest in decorating transformed her apartment’s walk-in closet into a sewing room and her kitchen into a small space where blue lights twinkle behind dark blue glasses. Decorative tiles installed by Kilson cover the floor.She is already hand-decorating tissue boxes for sale at Barett’s November bazaar. Ellis said she trusted Kilson’s judgement when she suggested installing a large aquarium in the common room.”Joanne has this creative eye I’ve never seen before. I give her the ball and she runs with it,” Ellis said.Kilson’s efforts to involve fellow tenants in activities and promote building get-togethers is important in Barett because many tenants do not have money to spend on dining or social events and family members often do not live near them, Ellis said.Barett’s 145 apartments are a combination of rent-subsidized and reduced rent-units with tenants paying less than $800 a month for a one-bedroom apartment. Ellis said market-rate rents for one-bedroom units is about $1,100.Kilson has a simple explanation for why she does so much for her neighbors.”I like people,” she said.Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].