LYNNWOOD—It with absolute pleasure that the Lynnwood Times editorial board has named Wally Webster II, Founder of the ACCESS Project, as Person of the Year for 2025, for his tireless commitment to community service, social justice, and commitment to tackling youth violence and, ultimately, paving the road for our next generation of leaders.
Webster (nicknamed the ‘Great Wally Webster’ by some) is a retired bank employee of 33 years, a U.S. military vet, and a community servant, in addition to his work with the ACCESS Project.
Webster’s call to community service has been a component of his life for as long as he could remember. As a child he recalled his late father telling him “you want to leave this world a better place than you found it,” though Webster didn’t truly understand what that meant until much later, when he began getting more involved in community activities.
Webster was born in, what he calls, the “swamps of” Alabama (or colloquially called the Bayou) under Jim Crow and the segregated laws of the South. After Emmett Till was killed in 1955 – lynched by a mob of White men who insisted the 14-year-old kid whistled at a White woman – Webster remembers his father giving him and his siblings a “lecture on how to survive in the South” as a Black man. At that point Webster decided he would leave the South as fast as he could.
As soon as Webster graduated high school he moved to Pasco, Washington, to live with an uncle who he had never met. He soon found that in Pasco, it was just as segregated as Alabama, with approximately 95% of its Black population living on the east side.
Seeing this, Webster created the first chapter of the Congress Of Racial Equality (CORE) when he was just a teen. Through his work he led the closure of a school which was de facto segregated.
“That’s the first time I really became community active,” said Webster.
Not too long after the closure of the segregated school, Webster joined the military fighting for our country’s rights and liberties. When he returned to Pasco, following his military career, he was hired on the spot as Executive Director of the Benton Franklin Community Action Committee in April 1969. He maintained this position until 1973.
As Executive Director Webster continued to fight for racial equality. One of his most proud accomplishments was establishing the, still existing, Martin Luther King Community Center in Pasco.
“I advocated for that, got $400,000 from the federal government, the central labor council donated property that was the matching grant – because it was a block grant and it required matching funds – and built that community center,” said Webster.
In 1978, Webster moved to Western Washington to accept a position at Ranier Bank – the bank’s first Affirmative Action Director. At this time Rainier Bank was battling a lawsuit, filed by a group of women, which was ultimately settled by way of a consent decree. A requirement of that consent decree was to enact certain policies that would prevent any future acts of alleged “discrimination” – which resulted in the founding of Webster’s position.
Webster worked for 33 years in the banking industry and retired in 2009. It was after his retirement when he grew more active in his community.
Today, Webster serves on the Board of Trustees for Edmonds College, sits on the Board of the Lynnwood Public Facilities District, and is a civilian member of the SMART team (Snohomish County Multiple Agency Response Team), which investigates any time there is a use of force incident involving law enforcement and a community member.
Webster also sat on the Steering Committee of the Lynnwood Neighborhood Center, though that position is coming to a close as the LNC prepares to open in January 2026.
The ACCESS Project
Wally Webster II founded the ACCESS Project as a response to six youths, and one adult caught in crossfire, being killed in his home city of Lynnwood in 2022.
In March of 2023, the City of Lynnwood put together an event called ‘Let’s Talk About Safety’ consisting of a panel of experts discussing how the City, and community, could tackle its public safety issues.
During this meeting, Webster stood up towards the end and said:
“Tonight, I’ve listened to a number of questions and there’s been a lot of nouns used. What are you doing, what are they doing, what are our partners doing. I’d like to change that to say what am I doing? If you look at each one of us in this room there’s enough expertise, there’s enough people in this room to make a difference in terms of safety in this community. If we take 40,000 people in this city, and we’re all doing something, this would be the safest place in the world to live. How many people are going up to the Boys & Girls Club and asking what can I do to help? How many of us are going up to the YMCA and asking what can I do to help?”
“So change that to what are you doing, and what your budget is doing to what am I doing to make a difference? If we can do that, then we can solve the problems that we came to talk about tonight.”
He went home that night but was unable to sleep, still frustrated with how the event went and deeply concerned about the problem of youth violence his city was facing. He got up in the middle of the night and wrote down about 20 names.
The next morning, he called each of those 20 names and about 14 of them agreed to show up for an emergency, 4 p.m., meeting the next day at Lynnwood City Hall. These names included Lynnwood Mayor Christine Frizzell, Mountlake Terrace Mayor Kyoko Matsumoto Wright, Municipal Court Judge Valerie Bouffiou, local pastors, and other communities. The result of these discussions was the ACCESS Project.
The consensus of the group was that Webster should be the one to run the project, seeing as he was the one who facilitated the meetings to begin with. He enthusiastically agreed.
“What was I going to do? Turn it down? No way,” said Webster.
The ACCESS Project was officially certified as a 501(c)(3) that year, in 2023.
At the heart of the nonprofit is three components. The first component is reaching the youth who are having mental health and behavioral challenges, getting them in front of ACCESS project employees to have conversations, and getting to the root of those challenges.
“When they come to see us we call that the assessment phase of the project,” said Webster. “It may take three, four, five sessions for them to open up and tell us exactly what’s causing their problem.”
The next component is leveraging the ACCESS Project’s 35-40 community partners – from professional counseling to communities of belonging like the Boys and Girls Club and others.
“I look at the ACCESS Project as a navigation hub. We navigate those youths to those resources out in the community,” said Webster.
In May 2025, Webster was recognized by the Snohomish County Council – by way of a resolution – and all of the good work he has done through the ACCESS Project, particularly his Cops vs. Youth Basketball character building events.
“The intent of these games isn’t to play basketball – that’s an enabler, as I call it. The intent is to develop trust, develop resource in the community, and relationships with someone who can help them if they’re having difficulties,” said Webster. “And that’s paid off. We’ve had several youths who have called a police officer and said I need your opinion and I need your help.”
The ACCESS Project also utilizes, what it calls, “peer to peer mediators” in local school districts. These trained meditators are trained to deal with conflicts among their peers. This program has been such a success that the Edmonds School District has asked the ACCESS Project if they could provide peer mediator services to all seven of their high schools and all four of their middle schools.
To keep up with the volume spike, the ACCESS Project employed the services of the Volunteers of America Western Washington’s Dispute Resolution Center, who agreed to do the training of youths to become certified peer to peer mediators.
The ACCESS Project has also formed a working relationship with local law enforcement agencies – beginning with the Everett PD – where police officers, who encounter a youth they feel can benefit from the ACCESS Project’s services, can fill out a form and the ACCESS Project will reach out within 24-hours.
These forms, called the Snohomish County Law Enforcement Referral Form, are now used by Lynnwood PD, with many other law enforcement agencies in the works. Within the first week of Lynnwood PD utilizing this form the ACCESS Project received seven referrals.
“We’re trying to reach these youths and interdict these behaviors, those challenges they’re facing, before they commit a life changing crime or incident, including self-harm,” said Webster.
Webster added that the ACCESS Project is far from slowing down its mission to meet youth where they are, with many more exciting plans to expand its operations to come in the next year and beyond.
Webster’s message to the people and closing words
As someone who has devoted his life to community service, who barely sleeps – from scheduling 5 a.m. meetings to waking up in the middle of the night jotting down names of community leaders he plans to call first thing in the morning – Webster was asked what his message would be to his community regarding getting more involved.
Webster said, first and foremost, to inform oneself of their expertise and the work they would like to do. The second step is just to get involved, ask what you can do, and reach out.
When the Lynnwood Times reached out to Mr. Webster II, notifying him he was being recognized as the Lynnwood Times Person of the Year for 2025, he shared the following remarks.
“When you told me I was under consideration, it brought tears to my eyes. You don’t do it for the recognition, you do it for the good of the community you serve, but you’re still human like everyone else,” said Webster. “When you’re recognized for something like this you can’t help but have it touch your soul. I have been doing this, and giving of this time, for years and to be recognized in this community for the services I’m trying to provide, and am providing, it gives me confirmation that what I’m doing is making a difference.”
Words from community members
“Wally Webster is a timely choice for Person of the Year. After decades of dedicated civic engagement, he remains innovative in his care for our community. Successes include founding and growing the ACCESS Project, investing his resources and networks as a member of the Lynnwood Neighborhood Center Steering Committee, and cofounding and sustaining the African American Leaders and Professional Network. That he calls me his brother remains one of my highest honors,” said Dr. Steve Woodard, Mountlake Terrace City Councilman and Volunteers of America VP of Community Engagement.
“Wally Webster is a true servant leader. He demonstrates this by serving on numerous boards and committees in our region. But I believe his greatest achievement is the Access Project which he founded in 2022. It is an organization that provides youth the access to mentorship and support services. The Access Project is a lifeline to the youth of our community that have been impacted by the pressures of social media, the isolation of the Covid pandemic and the recruitment of gangs. The need is great, and the Access Project is so important for the welfare of our youth. Barrack Obama, one said, “the best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something.” Wally Webster is an example of doing something. We are all better for having Wally Webster as a member of our community,” said Lynnwood Mayor-elect George Hurst.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
