Northwest Marine Trade Association Seeking Grant Apps

The Northwest Marine Trade Association (NMTA) announced a grant program for non-profits seeking assistance in promoting boating in the region.

The grants are being awarded through the trade group’s Grow Boating program, whose mission is to increase the number of boaters and encourage current boaters to boat more often.

Since 2003, the trade group has spent more than $1,000,000 to promote boating and yachting in the Pacific Northwest through events, sponsorships and programs. The group will award as much as $9,000 to one or more organizations by May 1, 2014.

“We are very excited to make these grants available to help promote boating in the region,” said John Thorburn, the trade group’s vice president of communications and marketing. “Our own efforts and programs have introduced boating to well over a million people since 2003. These grants should help us build new partnerships in the community to spread the benefits and joys of boating to even more.”

The group said applications must fall into one of the following categories:

• Youth boating grant: awarded to a group or organization seeking funding support for an event or program aimed specifically at getting or increasing youth participation in boating activities.

• Discover Boating grant: awarded to a group or organization seeking funding support for an event or program aimed specifically at introducing new people to boating.

• Boater education/safety grant: awarded to a group or organization seeking funding support for an event or program aimed specifically at educating new or current boaters on how to be safe on the water.

Completed applications must be received by March 3, 2014. Applications are available for downloading by visiting www.nmta.net/grant.