In October, Granny’s Attic announced the recipients of its fall granting cycle, a continuation of the nonprofit thrift store’s mission to serve the Vashon community through supporting its health care community.
According to Tim Johnson, the manager of Granny’s Attic, the thrift store had enough money this year to cover all its grant requests, and its membership chose overwhelmingly to fund all the requests that were submitted.
Total funding of $132,250 was approved for nine local organizations and causes.
Grants for airlift enhancement, prevention programs, food assistance and more
The University of Washington Foundation, acting as a fiscal agent for Vashon Island Fire & Rescue, received $15,000 for a transponder to allow Airlift Northwest (ALNW) to land on Vashon in inclement weather.
According to VIFR EMT and commissioner Brigitte Schran Brown, who wrote and submitted the grant, an average of four requests each year for airlifts off of Vashon are unable to be completed due to inclement weather. These “missed requests” represent the most critically injured or ill patients handled by VIFR and King County’s Medic One response program, Schran Brown said.
“Although an average of four missed requests per year seems small, to those patients and their families, this number represents their everything,” she said.
Additionally, she said, a major catastrophic event such as a Cascadia-fault earthquake off of Seattle’s coast could render Vashon isolated for days. VashonBePrepared and Vashon’s Medical Reserve Corps have identified that air transport could become the only link between the island and mainland during such a time.
Other organizations benefiting from the largess of Granny’s funding program include:
Vashon Youth and Family Services received $25,000 for its suicide prevention program and $19,000 for its substance use disorder program.
Vashon Senior Center received $12,000 for general operations support.
Hershey Housing, a residence for disabled islanders, received $1,000 for supplies for its developmentally disabled socialization program.
Vashon Island Growers’ Association received $2,500 for its “farm bucks” program, which allows seniors to access local fresh produce.
The Interfaith Council to Prevent Homelessness received $15,000 for the purchase of hot meals from the Senior Center Kitchen for its meals program, and $10,000 for its dental care program.
Vashon’s DoVE Project received $15,000 for its community-access-to-therapy program.
Vashon Care Network received $7,750 for the completion of its equipment storage project and scholarships for training home care aids.
The Vashon Food Bank received $10,000 to provide nutritious school snacks to underprivileged students.
Granny’s year has been a success, despite COVID-19
According to Johnson, Granny’s Attic employees, unpaid volunteers and customers came through in the past year, despite the pandemic, to generate the profits necessary for Granny’s to continue its grant program.
“We have kept our location as safe as we can from the pandemic, and we thank both our donors and customers for their acceptance of our rather strict but necessary safety procedures, and for vaccination by such a large portion of staff, volunteers, and islanders in general,” Johnson said. “We like to remind people that when you donate, shop, or volunteer at Granny’s, you contribute to a bunch of wonderful and necessary projects like the ones we just funded.”
Johnson added that Granny’s always needs more volunteers.
