THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 5, 1995 TAG: 9504050589
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CAMDEN LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
Camden County has received a grant of nearly $900,000 that the Watermark Association of Artisans will use to expand its staff and facilities.
The grant, announced this week by the North Carolina Department of Commerce, was awarded by the state as part of $4.8 million in 1994 federal block grants set aside for community empowerment awards.
Watermark, a crafts cooperative that provides income opportunities for its mostly poor members, will use the money to double the size of its warehouse and build a 9,000-square-foot building for its training arm, NEED. The cooperative's annual operating budget is $1.6 million.
``We're looking for a doubling of Watermark's sales,'' said George McKecuen, executive director of NEED, the Northeastern Education and Development Foundation. ``That's what the ultimate goal of this is for.''
The organization hopes to increase the number of wholesale shows it participates in and hire new employees, including a couple of marketing workers and a designer, McKecuen said.
``We're looking to develop more upscale, tabletop gifts and accessories,'' he said. ``With this money, we'll be able to pull everything together. . . . This is the kind of shot in the arm we really needed.''
Officials of Watermark and NEED, who have long lamented the lack of government support for a program viewed as a model by other cooperatives around the world, said they were happy to receive the assistance.
``The money's wonderful,'' said NEED Chairwoman Winnie Wood. ``But the recognition that we're doing something important and we're having success with it is almost as good.''
Camden was one of five communities in the state to receive similar grants under the program, a Commerce Report news release said. by CNB