Yakima youth music program awarded $100,000 grant
Anthony Marquez plays violin during rehearsal with Yakima Music en Acción on Tuesday at Le Chateau in Yakima. Marquez, who attended David High School for two years, was recently accepted into Idyllwild Arts Academy in California.
A Seattle-based nonprofit has awarded a $100,000 grant to Yakima Music en Acción, the after-school orchestra program that provides youths access to classical music training and leadership development.
The Washington Women’s Foundation selected five grantees across Washington state to be awarded $100,000. Funding will go to support ongoing youth leadership development, according to a news release.
YAMA, which is Washington’s first El Sistema-inspired classical music training program, and the Washington Women’s Foundation share values of racial equity, community leadership, and collective learning and action, the release said.
The youth orchestra is only the second organization in Yakima to receive this support. In 2018, the foundation awarded a $100,000 grant to La Casa Hogar. The grant helped fund its new La Escuelita classroom; La Casa Hogar broke ground on the project last month. It will grow the nonprofit’s bilingual early education programs.
For more information on both organizations, visit wawomensfdn.org and yamamusic.org.
—Tammy Ayer