SEQUIM — Unable to host its annual awards ceremony because of coronavirus health restrictions, board members with the Albert Haller Foundation selected grant recipients online and announced $250,000 worth of grants to local organizations last week.
The foundation is an nonprofit organization formed in 1992 to help fund charitable programs throughout Clallam County, primarily focused on education, family and medical services.
In the near three decades of giving, the Albert Haller Foundation has donated about $10 million to local groups.
Though they could not do so in person, the foundation’s board of directors — Dave Blake, Dick Schneider, Gary Smith and local school superintendents Rob Clark (Sequim) and Marty Brewer (Port Angeles) — said in a statement that they “wish to thank all the recipients for their tireless, mostly volunteer dedication in furthering Albert’s legacy by providing for the poor and needy of Clallam County.”
The five-member board oversees the foundation’s funds that started with about $9.2 million from Haller’s estate in 1992.
2020 Albert Haller Foundation award recipients include:
• $11,000 — Fairview Christian Preschool.
• $10,000 — Dungeness Valley Health & Wellness Clinic; Port Angeles Food Bank; Sequim Food Bank; United Way of Clallam County.
• $9,000 — Serenity House of Clallam County.
• $8,500 — Concerned Citizens-West End Food For Families.
• $8,000 — Health Families of Clallam County.
• $7,000 — Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula; First Step Family Support Center; St. Matthew Lutheran Church; St. Vincent de Paul-Queen of Angeles; St. Vincent de Paul- St. Joseph Conference.
• $6,000 — Crescent School District; Makah Tribe Food Bank.
• $5,500 — Port Angeles Education Foundation.
• $5,150 — Joyce Community Education Foundation.
• $5,000 — Camp Beausite Northwest; Clallam-Jefferson Pro Bono Lawyers; Clallam Mosaic; Forks Community Food Bank; New Hope Food Bank; North Olympic Veterans Housing; MANNA (Military Assisting Neighbors in Need); Parenting Matters Foundation; Peninsula Behavioral Health (transportation, food); Sequim Community Aid; Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County (medical equipment).
• $4,000 — Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula-academic enrichment; Kathleen Sutton Fund; Peninsula Behavioral Health (housing); TAFY — The Answer For Youth (Hunger on Weekends); Soroptimist International.
• $3,800 — Sequim School District.
• $3,550 — Crescent Cooperative Preschool.
• $3,500 — Peninsula Dispute Resolution Services; Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County.
• $3,000 — American Red Cross.
• $2,500 — Lutheran Community Service Northwest; Olympic Peninsula Health Community.
• $2,000 — Clallam County Homeless Outreach; Prevention Works .
Born in Port Angeles in 1903 to Sequim Valley pioneers Max and Anna Haller, Albert Haller was working in the woods at an early age and began selective logging in the Lost Mountain district in 1937, building “a reputation as a careful and competent logger,” according to the foundation website. He and his wife Julia began buying land, expanding log sales beyond the Olympic Peninsula and were at one time was the largest independent land owners in Clallam County.
In 1989, Haller proposed a foundation in his name, and in 1991 the nonprofit was formed “to be operated exclusively for charitable … or educational purposes whose activities most closely correspond with my intention as to furthering the welfare of the citizens of Clallam County.”
Haller was working on the Dungeness Heights development at the time of his death in 1992, at the age of 88.
To contribute to the Albert Haller Foundation or for more questions, visit www.alberthallerfoundation.org, contact the foundation at P.O. Box 2739, Sequim, WA 98382, or contact the Law Office of Alan Millet at tonib@qwest office.net or 360-683-1119.
