The Orcas Island Community Foundation will announce its annual grant awards at a ceremony to be held in the Madrona Room of the Orcas Center on Friday, May 22 at 3:30 p.m.

The ceremony celebrates the generosity of community members who have donated to the foundation to make this possible as well as the generosity of the Partners in Philanthropy. The foundation’s Partners in Philanthropy have looked at the list of approved grants and have stepped in to add their own gifts.

The occasion is also an opportunity to see community organizations in action as they have put together programs to benefit Orcas islanders and are granted the funds to carry out those programs.

The finale of the program is the high school youth grants. A generous donor has made $5,000 available to the high school seniors so that they can evaluate worthy non-profits on the island and make informed decisions on the grants that they will award. In the past this has proved to be one of the most moving parts of the program as the seniors stand up to talk about the organizations on the island that have made a difference in their lives.