WSGS President Mikal McKinnon has announced the local society projects that received Innovative Grants at last month’s state conference. The Innovative Grant Program, awarding financial awards up to $100, was created to support the inventive and creative efforts of WSGS-member societies and organizations. The successfully funded projects, which include matching funds from the local society, are:

• Chelan Valley Genealogical Society – Purchase of a computer, solely for genealogical research, at the Chelan Public Library. The computer will have access to Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.
• Northeast Washington Genealogical Society – Removal of trees that are endangering the safety of people and protection of grave markers at the Evergreen Cemetery, a local cemetery near Colville. Until NWGS began caring for this long-neglected cemetery, vandalism and lack of care had left its mark on many of the headstones and gravesites. Today, the cemetery looks like an old, but loved, pioneer cemetery.
• Skagit Valley Genealogical Society – Purchase of a new laptop computer to be used for society presentations and transcription of documents from the Northwest Regional Archives in Bellingham.
• Tri-City Genealogical Society – Funds will support the society’s “Archived Records Contest” which encourages individuals to share records they have obtained by various means other than just downloading an image from the Internet. Click here for more about the Archived Records Contest.
• Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society – Specialized computer software to enable more than one volunteer to enter data related to local obituaries, cemetery records, World War I records and more. The software purchase will enable WAGS members to add to their extensive genealogical holdings of more than 394,000 records and 90 databases.

Announcements for the 2016 grant cycle will be posted on the Blog in Spring 2016. For more information about the Innovative Grant Program, contact Roxanne Lowe, WSGS Recognition Chair.