Seven Vashon organizations have received a combined $10,500 in grant money from King County to help fund a wide variety of community programs.

The DOVE Project, Vashon Nature Center, Vashon Maury Island Community Food Bank, Vashon Conversation Project, Vashon Sheepdog Classic, Voice of Vashon and Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association all received Community Engagement Grants, which are funded through King County’s Community Service Area Program for unincorporated areas. Grant funds for island nonprofits ranged from $1,000 to $2,500 and will be used for activities ranging from education about how to live with wildlife to increasing access to annual island events and recreating historical gatherings. The seven grants given to island groups are a portion of a total of 52 grants awarded throughout the county and announced by King County Executive Dow Constantine Feb. 22.

King County Community Service Area Program Manager Alan Painter said that this grant cycle is the first time the county program has been able to fund all of the Vashon grant applications.

“We were seven for seven,” he said before explaining that the county executive and council increased the budget for these grants this year from $60,000 to $90,000. “They were also just good applications from Vashon, as always. There are some great ideas.”

Included in those ideas is the Vashon Nature Center’s (VNC) increased outreach about living with wildlife. The organization received $2,500 to go toward education on this subject.

“They’re doing good work helping the island deal with critters that have swum across to join the island,” Painter said.

Reached last week just one day after the Feb. 22 announcement, VNC Education Specialist Maria Metler expressed excitement about receiving the funds the center had applied for in November. She said the center wants to host more talks from experts on wildlife. Those talks will likely happen over the summer and into the fall. She continued to say that increasing citizen science programs, including the island coyote monitoring group, hands-on science programs in the schools and wildlife camera monitoring are also priorities for 2017.

“We want to engage the community,” she said. “Now that we’ve been awarded funding, it’s time to start putting this all together and refocusing our goals. This funding will support research we’re doing through the (coyote) howling surveys and database, scat surveys and wildlife camera database.”

She said the center just finished a stream health unit at McMurray Middle School and is beginning its Beachwatcher program, which is a partnership with the county in which volunteers help to count forage fish at island beaches.

“Between Beachwatchers and a hands-on science unit in the high school about to start and then this work with living with wildlife, we are busy,” she said.

Meanwhile, Vashon’s domestic violence prevention organization, The DOVE Project, also received funds to continue an existing program. The organization was awarded $1,000 for violence prevention training administered through its Green Dot Bystander Training program. The organization rolled out the training program in January. It focuses on teaching community members bystander awareness and how to be proactive to intervene in high-risk situations.

“The Green Dot strategy is a comprehensive approach to violence prevention,” DOVE Project Executive Director Betsey Archambault said. “Visualize for a moment the unforgettable image of small red dots spreading across a map of the U.S.‚ symbolizing the spread of some terrible epidemic — each tiny red dot representing an individual case. Now imagine a map of your community. A red dot is a rape, a red dot is an assault, a red dot is a threat. Now, imagine adding a green dot; a green dot is any choice a person makes that promotes safety and communicates intolerance for violence.”

The trainings will be offered to the community throughout the year, first as a series of 90-minute trainings, then culminating in a five-hour training.

Another island nonprofit working to solve a widespread problem, the Vashon Maury Island Community Food Bank, received $1,000 to help raise awareness about hunger and food insecurity. The grant comes on the heels of a November forum that aimed to answer the questions, “Who is hungry on Vashon?” and “What can we do about it.” Food bank Executive Director Robbie Rohr said she plans to use the grant money to plan follow-up activities to the forum.

“One idea we had was to do community focus groups with people who are current or past food bank users about how we can address any barriers to service or how we can better serve the community,” she said last week. “The second thing we hope to do is a publication which links island resources for food with volunteer opportunities.”

For those struggling with food insecurity, she also said she wants to better publicize the numerous services available, including the federal WIC program and Vashon Island Grower’s Association’s Food Access Partnership.

“The socio-economic divide is getting much larger,” she said.

Also hoping to bridge that divide, the Vashon Sheepdog Classic received its first ever Community Engagement Grant — $1,000 to fund transportation costs to and from the annual event for low-income attendees.

Tina Shattuck, event producer for the classic, said the details haven’t been completely worked out yet, but the organization is hoping to offer either discounted or free tickets to the event, along with free transportation to and from, as well as free ferry tickets.

“It’s all about access, absolutely,” she said. “We thought it would be a good idea because what the trials hope to do is educate and help people recognize what farming is all about.”

She said the 2017 trials are going to be larger than usual as Temple Grandin, a woman on the autistic spectrum who holds a doctorate in animal science and has become prominent in both the farming and autism circles, will be in attendance.

“She’s known throughout the world for her work in the farming industry with cattle and animals, as well as autism. It will be the trials as usual, just bumped up a few notches,” she said.

Planning a more current event, the Vashon Conversation Project, which is hosting the Vashon Conversation for the Living about Dying this week, received $1,000 to go toward the event.

Carol Spangler, who is spearheading the event, said that the multi-day event is “a true volunteer-driven, grassroots effort” and, as such, “it is such a relief to receive the grant.” The Vashon Conversation for the Living about Dying begins Thursday and runs through Sunday. It features a wide variety of events, including music and art, as well as guest speakers.

“At this point, we have more than 50 volunteers involved in all aspects of the weekend. It will be fun to see it unfold,” she said.

She also said the grant will also allow the group of volunteers to put on additional events throughout the year.

Meanwhile, The Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association is working on a project to recreate a historic Chautauqua assembly in July. The organization was awarded $2,000 that will go toward that effort.

The community event will be based on the adult education movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies — including Vashon’s that was centered in Ellisport — brought entertainment and culture, including speakers, teachers, musicians, entertainers, preachers and specialists. An email to heritage association officials requesting comment and details was not returned by press time.

Rounding out the island grantees, Voice of Vashon (VoV) received $2,000 for community television, radio and internet community engagement opportunities.

VoV Station manager Susan McCabe said the funds will simply help “continue what we are doing already.”

“There’s a definite cost involved, particularly for video and live video broadcasting of community forums, arts lectures and events,” she explained. “We had a grant a long time ago from 4Culture and that money’s going away. We have to continually replenish.”