Submitted by: Whatcom Community Foundation
As Project Neighborly enters its second year, we are pleased to announce 23 projects that encourage neighborliness. Funded projects include: an interactive art installation that travels around on a bike trailer sparking creative conversation; a kayaking expedition that pairs rural and urban high school students to get to know each other while exploring and learning about our corner of the Salish Sea; activities that bring together families from other nations who are new to the area; an intergenerational community dinner at the Lynden Senior Center; skill sharing in the South Fork Valley; and a language exchange in the Birchwood neighborhood of Bellingham.
Local groups will receive grants ranging from $1,981 to $5,000 for projects designed to connect people, ideas and resources so that everyone who lives here thrives. The Whatcom Community Foundation is investing nearly $100,000 in Project Neighborly.
“This is just another example of the spirit that exists here in Whatcom County making it a privilege to be residing in this part of the country,” said Fred Sheppard, Resource and Development Manager for Habitat for Humanity in Whatcom County.
“People can imagine and bring remarkable things to life if you invite them to be creative,” said Community Foundation CEO Mauri Ingram. “Project Neighborly grants add a little fuel to those great ideas. The 2017 projects proved that truly amazing things can be accomplished when people roll up their sleeves to focus on the one thing that we all have the most control over: how we make this place feel.”
Project Neighborly grants are a catalyst for cultivating neighborliness and all funded projects will take place by the end of 2018.
For more information about this program and other grant opportunities, contact the
Whatcom Community Foundation at 360-671-6463.