Rancher’s gift used to develop town website, social media

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Published: April 14, 2016

The late Bill Long probably wasn’t a website surfer.

However, the endowment fund he created in the name of his uncle and fellow Alberta rancher, Henry Stewart Varley, will this year be used to create websites and social media for all the towns and villages in Vulcan County.

The $30,000 for the project was awarded March 31 by the Community Foundation of Lethbridge and Southwestern Alberta, which administers the fund.

The money will be used to develop or update existing websites for the town and villages in the county, and devise a social media presence in the form of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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Ashlee Beck, the administrative assistant for the Vulcan Business Development Society, is working on the one-year pilot project, which has also involved a website creation company.

“We are going to highlight a lot of different things in the county,” she said. Tourist maps and information on local attractions, historical sites, lakes, campgrounds, churches and cemeteries will be included, along with a wealth of other material.

Vulcan County is more than 5,400 sq. kilometres in size and has about 7,000 residents.

The Town of Vulcan is its largest centre and is known in some circles for its Star Trek-related attractions.

The Henry S. Varley Fund for Rural Life is a $4.4 million endowment designed to generate about $150,000 per year in grant funds in perpetuity.

About the author

Barb Glen

Barb Glen

Barb Glen is the livestock editor for The Western Producer and also manages the newsroom. She grew up in southern Alberta on a mixed-operation farm where her family raised cattle and produced grain.

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