Fund to develop community websites, social media

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Published: April 6, 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.

Photo libraries will be started for all partners in the project and video is also part of the plan.

Beck said the primary goal is to attract people to the region, either as residents, business operators or tourists.

The Village of Arrowwood is the sponsoring community for the grant and it will be the first to have its web systems upgraded. The Village of Milo will be next, with the other three villages in the county to follow. They include Carmangay, Champion and Lomond. The Town of Vulcan and Vulcan County are also in the mix.

Beck said the grant from the Varley endowment will enable the town and county to improve their electronic presence and make information more accessible to residents as well.

“We know that people make major decisions based on online impressions and information,” said Vulcan Business Development Society manager Marilyn MacArthur, in a news release about the grant.

“We already have a number of remote workers and entrepreneurs in our area and with a more unified and contemporary online presence, they can be as competitive in their business as someone in a larger centre.”

Beck said most of the websites involved in the project are up and running and she is working to populate them with additional information.

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.

Contact barb.glen@producer.com

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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