The Walter Munk Foundation for the Oceans is looking to raise $90,000 in the coming months to install new wave-themed benches within Kellogg Park in La Jolla Shores. 

The city of San Diego Parks & Recreation Department recently gave the Walter Munk Foundation permission to install four new benches there at a cost of $30,000 each. Funding for one has already been secured, and the foundation is seeking three $30,000 donations to purchase the others.  

The new benches would be located on the east side of the fixture known as the Map of the Grand Canyons of La Jolla — a 2,200-square-foot LithoMosaic containing more than 100 life-size mosaics of marine creatures. There are already wave-themed benches on the west side of the map and alongside the La Jolla Shores boardwalk.

“Benches are at a premium at the beach, and that area of Kellogg Park (where the benches would go) is where scuba divers set up for their dives and where families like to get set up for a day at the beach, so we thought it would be nice to have benches there,” said Walter Munk Foundation president Mary Munk.

She said that as soon as all four benches have been paid for, they will be purchased and installed.  The hope, she added, is to have them installed by the end of the year. 

Munk also said the city is allowing one or two bronze plaques to be added to each of the benches to recognize the donors or the donor’s loved ones.

Once the installation is complete, any remaining funds will be used to help support more events at the Map of the Grand Canyons of La Jolla, including field trips, docent walks and educational gatherings. 

“Our focus (at the Walter Munk Foundation) is bringing students from underserved communities to the ocean,” Munk said. “How can they care about something they know nothing about?”

The Foundation is also raising money to pay for buses to bring those from underserved communities to future installments of Walter Munk Day, which is held every October. 

This year’s Walter Munk Day will be 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3 at Kellogg Park. In addition to honoring Walter Munk, the event will highlight the 10th anniversary of the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology’s founding, the 75th anniversary of the Scripps Scientific Diving program’s founding, the 50th anniversary of the release of the film “Jaws” and more. 

Learn more about the bench program and Walter Munk Day at waltermunkfoundation.org