Generous Estate Gift Creates New Endowment
Every day at the Kraft Family YMCA in Apex, children and families take shelter beneath the generosity of Louis and Martha Ruth Smith. The Smiths gave transformational capital gifts to construct the Kraft Family YMCA building and its swimming pool. “Martha’s Den” and “Louis’ Lodge,” multi-purpose rooms in the Kraft Youth Wing, host a combined 350 kids every day.
The Louis and Martha Ruth Smith Family Aquatics Center, where hundreds of kids have learned to swim, is among the busiest pools operated by the YMCA of the Triangle.
Recently, the Smith legacy expanded even further with an incredibly generous estate gift of $543,000 from Martha Ruth, who passed away in late 2022. This gift created the Louis and Martha Ruth Smith Family Endowment, which will support the Kraft Family YMCA in perpetuity providing initial distributions of over $25,000/yr. On Nov. 13, 2024, the Y community honored the next generations of the Smith family — Marlou and Eddie Bacon and their sons Kyle and Alex — with a special Generosity Award presented by YMCA of the Triangle CEO Bruce Ham.
