POSTED: Saturday, Jul. 05, 2008
Generous donations help solidify county quality of life
E-Mail
Print
tool name
closeWe salute the generous corporations and citizens who share their wealth and contribtute to the quality of life for all here in Whatcom County.
In the last week our newspaper has reported three large community contributions that serve as examples of the kind of philanthropy that helps our community move from being good to great.
ConocoPhillips donated $100,000 to the Boys & Girls Club of Whatcom County to help rebuild the Ferndale building that was destroyed by a devastating fire on New Year’s Day 2007.
The oil company owns and operates an oil refinery at Neptune Beach, west of Ferndale, which employs about 300 people.
Boys & Girls Club officials hope to open a new club facility by December 2009 to replace the one that was lost in the fire.
The club has now raised $3.1 million of the $4.5 million it is trying to raise in its capital campaign.
Peoples Bank gave $100,000 toward Bellingham’s Campaign for the Arts.
The nonprofit campaign is raising money to help pay for expensive projects aimed at creating a vibrant arts district in Bellingham.
The money raised by the campaign will help pay for renovations at the Mount Baker Theatre and Whatcom Museum’s new art and children’s museum and creation of new “streetscapes” of art at strategic street corners in the area.
The campaign is working to raise $8.6 million in private funds for the projects. To date donors have contributed more than $4.6 million towards the goal, according to the campaign’s official Web site at http://artsdistrictbellingham. net.
Bank officials said they support the idea because they believe the arts plan will do many good things for our community.
An anonymous donor gave $375,000 to the Whatcom Community Foundation.
The foundation serves as sort of a clearinghouse for community giving here, helping encourage community leaders to donate to charities and managing agency endowments to nonprofit organizations.
Last year, the foundation received $1 million from an anonymous benefactor who wanted the money to go to the Ferndale Public Library.
This year’s big donation is different in that it goes directly to the foundation, helping build up its endowment and continue with the work of encouraging people to take part in philanthropic giving.
We thank ConocoPhillips, Peoples Bank, the community foundation’s anonymous donor and everyone else who has given to make our communities better places to live.
-
Open Positions
SKAGIT VALLEY HOSPITAL -
Metal Tooling Project Manager
Janicki Industries -
Open Positions
The Markets, LLC -
Finance Director
WTA -
Caregivers
The Courtyard
@Nyx.CommentBody@