'Magical' $250K donations go to four Kitsap nonprofits from anonymous Bremerton donor

Peiyu Lin
Kitsap Sun
FILE — Bremerton WestSound Symphony member Chuck Greene dons a mask with a hole for his mouthpiece during rehearsal. The symphony was one of four Bremerton-based nonprofits to receive an anonymous $250,000 donation from a Bremerton resident.

$250,000: At first, it sounded like a scam to Connie Lord.

It turned out to be legitimate: the organization she leads received its largest donation ever. But Lord and her staff were asked to present a two-year plan on how the agency would spend the gift intelligently, make a positive impact and give back to the community.

"Happy problem," said Lord, the board president of Bremerton Westsound Symphony.

Seven nonprofits — four from Kitsap — were notified earlier this year that an anonymous donor from Bremerton wanted to gift them each $250,000. In addition to the Bremerton Westsound Symphony, they were the Bremerton United Methodist Church, the Great Peninsula Conservancy, the Olympic College Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, the Ocean Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund.

In total the donor — who is still living, according to PR firm Quinn Brein Communications — is gifting $1.875 million, with some recipients not yet finalized, according to a press release.

"I'm just humbled and grateful that this person thought of us because there's a lot of different nonprofits out there," Lord said.

The organizations the benefactor selected focus on education, the arts and environmental protection. 

The donor, who wants to keep their identity private, has lived in Bremerton for a long time. The individual hopes to give back to the organizations they've been involved in in a meaningful way, said Olympic College Foundation Executive Director Trevor Ross, who also works as a liaison between representatives of the donor and the selected nonprofits.

The donor's intention to make positive changes in the short term — that is, one or two years — makes the money "magical," Ross said.

"I think it's really exciting," Ross said.

Free concerts and music education

With the donation, Bremerton Westsound Symphony decided that all concerts for the 2021-22 season will be free to the public, Lord said.

More:Bremerton symphony is back with free, in-person concerts and a new name

The symphony will coordinate with Bremerton area schools to provide various music education programs, including the expansion of its countywide OrKIDstra program to let more students in more grades hear live music performed by the local orchestra at the Bremerton Performing Arts Center for free, Lord said.

Also, the symphony will give monetary awards to the winners of its young artists competition, $2,000 in total, to help increase the participation in the competition, Lord said.

While some people may not be able to attend the concerts in person because of the pandemic, the orchestra is using the donation to buy some video cameras and record six of its concerts professionally. Videos will be put online for people to watch and listen remotely, Lord said.

The symphony also created a new position for sales and marketing coordination. The new staff member will help the organization get membership sponsors and grants, Lord said. 

For the second 2022-23 season, which will be the orchestra's 80th anniversary, the symphony plans to launch a free community concert at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds.

"We just wanted to make this a wonderful gift to the community," Lord said.

Scholarships

Olympic College Foundation used some of the donations to expand its OC Promise scholarship program to include both Bremerton and Olympic high schools in the 2021-22 school year. The program offers one tuition-free year to high school graduates who could not otherwise afford the cost of college, according to Ross. 

In addition, the foundation will provide housing assistance for vulnerable students at Olympic College. While details haven't been finalized, those in need can fill out a grant application and the foundation will evaluate the case and find ways to help, for example, paying the students' rent or mortgage, Ross said.

Bremerton United Methodist Church will provide scholarships to two children to attend a preschool. The recipients are from low-income families who couldn't have afforded the tuition without the scholarships or a member of minority groups, said the Rev. Earl Rice.

The church also plans to pay the salary of their full-time pastor for the next two years and financially support some food banks in Kitsap County, whose staff members will teach students how to grow vegetables in a school garden program in Bremerton, Rice said.

At Blueberry Park in Bremerton, the organization had underwritten some work to improve the infrastructure of the garden in the park, where vegetables are grown to supply the food banks in the community, Rice said.

Donation recipients see the potential to collaborate, Rice said. For example, children who are financially supported by the church may be able to listen to orchestra performed by the symphony.

"We're very fortunate," Rice said, adding that outreach is important for the church.

Environmental stewardship

Headquartered in Bremerton, the Great Peninsula Conservancy is dedicated to habitat protection and land conservation in Puget Sound from the Hood Canal Bridge to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, said Nathan Daniel, Great Peninsula Conservancy executive director.

The conservancy will use the gift to hire a third staff member. The new employee will help the organization submit applications for state and federal grants, Daniel said.

The organization bought tools and equipment for its property stewardship, including a trailer, a pickup truck, chainsaws, hard hats and other personal protective equipment to expand its capacity for taking care of the land, Daniel said.

The purpose is to connect people to nature and get more community engagement from the public, Daniel said.

"We're eternally grateful for the contribution from the anonymous donor," Daniel said.

Donations to the Nature Conservancy and Ocean Conservancy will go to projects that relate to the Puget Sound area, according to a press release.

Ross said the donor's request for anonymity comes from the desire to keep the focus on the organizations rather than calls of thanks or congratulations. 

"They're more interested in seeing that impact," Ross said.

Reach breaking news reporter Peiyu Lin at pei-yu.lin@kitsapsun.com or on Twitter @peiyulintw.

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