King County awards grants to island organizations

The Community Engagement Grants program, supports local programs and projects

On Monday, King County Executive Dow Constantine announced 60 grants to support community projects and events in unincorporated parts of the county, including on Vashon Island.

The Community Engagement Grants program, administered by the county’s Department of Local Services, supports programs and projects such as emergency preparedness training, movie nights, native pond habitat restoration and purchasing a commercial dishwasher for a senior center.

The Vashon grants are as follows:

• $1,500 for Voice of Vashon to update Vashon’s emergency broadcast system;

• $1,000 for the Backbone Campaign and its film and community discussion program, Backbone Meaningful Movies;

• $1,000 for Vashon Makerspace/Vashon Tool Library’s disaster preparedness-recovery and response tool training;

• $1,000 for Vashon Events’ outreach and education for the Vashon Events Music Instrument library;

• $1,000 for Mukai Farm and Garden’s Japanese festival;

• $1,000 for Vashon Sheepdog Classic’s ADA transportation shuttle for event attendees;

• Vashon Youth & Family Services’ Know Your Rights training relating to police and/or ICE encounters;

• $650 for Vashon Choral Boosters’ community youth chorus program, and

• $300 for The DOVE Project’s bystander intervention training.

Grant recipients competed for a total of $90,000 in grant funds, with individual grants ranging between $300 and $4,300 each. Community organizations or volunteers must put up at least one quarter of the total cost of their project or event, which must be accessible to all residents regardless of race, income, or language spoken.