By Patric Hedlund

Kern County’s new 2014-15 budget includes a $100,000 fund for the Board of Trade’s Tourism Grant again this year. The deadline to submit an application is October 24 by 5 p.m.

Since 2001, 273 grants worth almost $2.1 million have been provided to help attract tourists to Kern County. Many Mountain Community festivals and nonprofit organizations have received tourism grants.

Projects seeking funds must show their potential to attract tourists and their tourist dollars to this region. Only nonprofit 501 (c) organizations are eligible.

The grant cycle is focused on direct marketing to bring visitors from other areas to Kern County. These are guidelines:

Organizations may apply for up to $10,000 in marketing assistance per project. Applicants may submit more than one project for consideration, but no single organization can receive more than $10,000 in total aid.

Application materials are available online at http://www.visitkern.com/grants/. You may also download the application, complete program guidelines, instructions and a sample completed application.

For more information, contact the Kern County Board of Trade at 661.868.KERN or e-mail Grants@VisitKern.com.

This is part of the September 5, 2014 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

Have an opinion on this matter? We'd like to hear from you.