About the fund
Wilma Ellen Lee-Hull (June 18, 1940-April 3, 2021) left a generous gift from her estate to Benton Community Foundation for the purpose of providing operational support to SouthSide Youth Outreach (SSYO).
SSYO provides after-school programming to kids from kindergarten through second grade, and is located directly across from Lincoln Elementary School in South Corvallis.
The gift arrived in 2021, more than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, when social-distancing and reduced services were the new norm, and SSYO was keeping up with constantly changing guidelines, keeping kids safely distanced from one another, and limiting the number of people they could serve in their physical space. Even though COVID restrictions limited SSYO operations, staff focused on creating the enriching programming vital to connecting with students. “This will benefit our entire organization, whether we use it for building repairs or hiring additional staff,” said Jake Moevao, Executive Director at SSYO. “Most importantly, it has lifted our team’s morale after a couple tough years of COVID.”
Background
Wilma Ellen Lee-Hull was born on June 18, 1940 in Limon, Colorado to Harry Omer Lee and Doris Ellen Mark.
In the late 60s, Wilma joined WYCLIFFE Translators and moved to Yarinacocha, Peru. There, she taught medical practices to the indigenous people of the Amazon basin. She continued this for 19 years. Upon her return to Oregon, she became a registered nurse and nurse practitioner. She worked for Kaiser Permanente, and retired in 1997, when she married her husband, Ralph W. Hull.
The couple shared a passion for missions until his death in 2002. After this, Wilma continued supporting missions, traveling and serving on mission boards.