HAYWARD — Some things in life are free, and for the next three years, visiting the Hayward Area Historical Society’s galleries will be one of them.

That’s right.

Anyone walking through the museum’s doors can view the exhibits and participate in activities at no cost. Visitors are also given a small pamphlet upon entering, letting them know that the Edward E. and Donna L. Martins Foundation picked up the tab and wants others to pay it forward, too.

The couple’s annual $10,000 donation for the next three years will cover all admission fees during that time, Hayward Area Historical Society deputy director Maria Ochoa said.

“The Hayward community has many immigrants, some of whom I am sure have had little education for one reason or another,” Ed Martins, 89, said in an interview with his wife, Donna, at the Hayward Area Historical Society museum.

“Our community also has many low-income households, and a museum entrance fee is not a priority; food and shelter for the family come first. Each of us that can, need to give something back to our community, and our gift is an attempt to do that,” he said.

The reason behind the donation happened innocuously when Ed Martins, a practicing Hayward attorney, began visiting the museum when admission was $8.

“I said to the director, ‘You’re out of your mind. People aren’t going to pay $8 to come to a museum,’ so they reduced it to $5,” Martins said.

Still, for Martins, that did not address the elephant in the room: Why are people paying anything at all?

“I would hope that families work their way here, and not just mothers, but dads; I would like to see stronger family unity, and I think this might just a little bit,” he said.

“If we don’t teach our young kids to get better educational wise, we’re going to be a third-world country. We’ve got to get these kids educated one way or the other, and this is just one attempt to do that,” he said.

Donna Martins, a former California Questers member in its Hayward and Castro Valley chapter, agreed. The statewide nonprofit is dedicated to the study, conservation and presentation of historical objects, memorials and historic buildings.

“I think it’s a way to get people into the community and thinking back to how things started here; for example, I remember reading stories about how farming began in the area,” she said.

It’s an investment that has already made an impact, Ochoa said. In all, more than 2,400 visited the museum between Sept. 6, the first day admission fees were waived, and Nov. 1. That’s about 75 percent of all people who visited the museum last year. The participation rate at the museum’s monthly Toddler Time program, with activities for children up to 5 years old, has nearly doubled during the same two-month period, since parents are now able to participate for free.

If the Martins’ name sounds familiar, that’s because the couple are no strangers to Hayward or the Bay Area. At Chabot College alone, five $1,000 scholarships for books, school supplies, registration and fees are given out each year in their name.

But it’s not something that Ed and Donna Martins dwell on much.

“When you live long enough like we have, you’ve been able to do a few things,” Ed Martins said with a laugh.

“We were just talking today about how did we get so old so quick. We’ve both been very, very busy, so time passes by really quickly,” he said.

Ed Martins’ time in Hayward dates back to 1953, when he became a practicing lawyer shortly after receiving his doctorate in law from the University of San Francisco. Soon after, then-City Attorney George Oakes hired Ed Martins as a part-time assistant city attorney. Martins eventually left the city to focus on his private practice in downtown Hayward.

Ed Martins was later elected as a South County Community College District board trustee, or what is known today as Chabot College. But he stepped down after one term because “he believed that elective service ought to be circulated among the citizenry,” the Friends of Chabot College Foundation wrote in a spring 2017 application form for the scholarship named after Ed and Donna Martins, a Chabot College graduate.

Ed Martins, a former Hayward Rotary Club president, also played a key role in establishing what is now the Silva Pediatric Clinic in 1995.

Martins served as a lawyer for the clinic’s donor, Angelina Fontes Silva, who gave him the posthumous authority to bequeath her estate to any cause he wanted. Around that time, then-Rotary Club president Gary Smith asked Martins for seed money to build a full-service pediatric clinic.

Martins donated a portion of Silva’s estate for the clinic but stipulated that the facility be named after Silva. The Silva Pediatric Clinic was expanded in 1999 to provide a full range of dental services.

If you go:

What: Hayward Area Historical Society Museum of History & Culture

Where: 22380 Foothill Blvd., Hayward

Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday

Admission: Free

Information: 510-581-0223, info@haywardareahistory.org