POMEROY–The Harold and Helen Shepherd Foundation is now accepting request applications for 2021 grants. This is the 25th year of offering grants to southeastern Washington non-profit organizations with a 501(c) 3 tax status.

Include along with your application, if your organization wants to make a request, the following:

-How you intend to use the funds,

-How much money you will need,

-Have you obtained bids,

-How will this benefit the community, and

-Send your tax status, including 501 (c) 3 documentation if you are a new recipient. Please submit all paperwork prior to October 31, 2021 to Harold & Helen Shepherd Foundation, Gary Houser, Trustee, 56 Lewis Road, Pomeroy, WA 99347.

Harold Shepherd was born May 16, 1899, in Hillsboro, Ohio. His father was a U.S. Customs inspector, and when Harold was five years old the family moved to Everett, Wash., and later to Seattle. He grew up and attended elementary and high school in Seattle.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in France during World War I. He returned after the war and went to Whitman College in Walla Walla where he majored in economics. He worked on ranches around Walla Walla to earn money to support his way through school.

At Whitman College he met Helen Morris from Pomeroy. Helen was born in 1903 in Pomeroy and her father owned the Bank of Pomeroy and also had farmland in the area. After college, Harold operated a paint store in Seattle and Helen went to law school at the University of Washington. They met again in Seattle and were married. They lived in Seattle for four years, but made frequent visits to Pomeroy because Helen was the only child of her parents who lived there.

Her father encouraged them to move to Pomeroy where Harold took up farming in 1937 on some of his father-in-law’s land and additional land that he and Helen acquired. He farmed for 40 years and both Harold and Helen retired to live in Pomeroy.

The Harold and Helen Shepherd Foundation has assisted students and provided support for many local and area non-profit organizations.