The Y Receives Generous Local Grant

Representatives with the Ben and Myrtle Walkling Memorial Trust announced it will donate $25,863 to Clallam County community agencies this year.

Myrtle Walkling, who died in 1992, created the trust in her will and funded it with more than $1 million, and since the trust’s inception, it’s given more than $838,000 to community groups.

It was Myrtle’s intent to support charitable and civic projects in Clallam County that otherwise might not happen, trust representatives wrote.

The Olympic Peninsula YMCA is so grateful to have been one of the recipients this year to receive $1500 to upgrade our Volleyball equipment.

It is through generous donations, grants and community support that our non-profit is able to continue to provide valuable programs to the community and never turn anyone away due to inability to pay.

We thank the Ben and Myrtle Walkling Memorial Trust for their generosity and helping us meet this community need.

Other 2025 community recipients included:

• Sequim Food Bank: $5,000 for the Weekend Meal Bag program

• Peninsula Behavioral Health: $3,963 to develop “Treatment Journals”

• Olympic Nature Experience: $2,5000 to provide tuition assistance for outdoor programs

• Olympic Unitarian Universalist Fellowship: $2,400 for personal hygiene products for Little Free Pantry and children’s books for Little Free Library

• Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula (Port Angeles club): $2,000 for audio/visual equipment

• Concerned Citizens: $2,000 for tables, chairs and acoustic tiles

• Field Arts and Events Hall: $2,000 to provide free and highly subsidized performances with the Young Patrons program

• Joyce Community Education Foundation: $2,500 to purchase inclusive playground features for the Crescent School playground

• The Answer for Youth (TAFY): $2,000 to purchase boots for the “Safe Feet” program

To reach organizers of the Ben & Myrtle Walkling Memorial Trust, email walklingtrust@gmail.com.