Columbia Basin Foundation receives major donation

EPHRATA — It isn’t every day that the Columbia Basin Foundation receives a $600,000 donation.

But when Othello dairy farmer Wayne Bartelheimer died in late 2019 at the age of 74, unmarried and childless, he left a large portion of his estate to the Columbia Basin Foundation, according to the foundation’s executive director Corinne Isaak.

“I’m always amazed,” Isaak said. “I get to experience the generosity of the community when they donate to us.”

Isaak said the foundation, which currently manages a total endowment of around $10 million, will use Bartelheimer’s bequest to create the Wayne L. Bartelheimer Memorial Athletic Scholarship, which will provide financial assistance to high school and college students in Grant and Adams counties who might want to pursue college athletics and who have demonstrated “integrity, citizenship, motivation, academic success and financial need.”

“Each year, we distribute around 5 percent, and we don’t ever touch the principal,” Isaak said. “We expect to distribute around $30,000 each year from this scholarship, and we’ll start in 2021.”

Bartelheimer grew up in Snohomish, enlisted in the U.S. Army after graduating from high school in 1964 and served in Vietnam. A certified counselor with a master’s degree in family counseling from Fresno State University, he worked as a counselor for the Lutheran Family Center in Portland, Oregon, for 20 years, also starting the Bar-E Dairy in Othello with his brother Alan in 1992.

Wayne Bartelheimer was also a runner and participated in a number of triathlons during his life, Isaak said. In addition to the Columbia Basin Foundation, Bartelheimer left portions of his estate to the Eastern Washington University Foundation and the National Parkinson’s Foundation.

Isaak said the Columbia Basin Foundation manages 116 funds and gives out 52 scholarships to high school and college students every year, and notes that the foundation’s work “really benefits the community.”

“The neat piece when you donate to charity, it continues to grow and will forever benefit the students of Grant and Adams counties,” she said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.