Legendary actress Bea Arthur left behind more than just good memories and Golden Girls re-runs to remember her by. The late actress, who passed away this past April, also left $300,000 for gay youth.

The donation to New York's Ali Forney Center, an organization that supports homeless LGBT, was accounted for in her will. The center's Executive Director Carl Siciliano was aware of her support and that something would be left behind, but he had no idea just how great of a sum it would be.

The center assists more than 1,000 people each year, providing shelter for runaways who left home for a safer environment to be who they are. The organization had been struggling financially for months and has come very close to having to shut down a number of times.

"The last year and a half, since the economic crisis started, it's been really hard to keep this program going," Siciliano said. "A lot of the foundation and corporate money that we used to get has dried up, and we've been growing. Every day, we have about 125 kids a night waiting to get into our housing."

Upon receiving the $300,000 check via FedEx on Tuesday, Siciliano said he began to cry. This money came at just the right time.

"For months, I've been really sweating to make each payroll, and we're usually a month or two behind on our rent, and there have been times when I was afraid that I wasn't going to hold it together," he said. "That kind of terror of [trying to] keep this thing going has come to an end for now with this extraordinary generosity."

Arthur had begun working with the center back in 2005 when she agreed to do a benefit for the organization at the request of a former set designer. Back then, the center was still very small, a grassroots organization that was only able to shelter 12 kids at a time.

The benefit opened Arthur's eyes to the fact that thousands of gay kids were living on the street, and prompted her to get more involved. She performed broadway shows and fundraisers to raise tens of thousands of dollars for the center.

Later in the year, Arthur spoke of her work with the center and helping homeless LGBT youth in Next magazine:

"I'm very, very involved in charities involving youth," Arthur said in the interview. "These kids at the Ali Forney Center are literally dumped by their families because of the fact that they are lesbian, gay or transgender -- this organization really is saving lives."

The generous $300,000 donation from Arthur will go towards helping more youth, Siciliano plans to use the money to buy another residence that can house 12. He plans on naming it after Arthur.

"To have her choose to shine that kind of light on us was remarkable," Siciliano said. "She became an advocate for the issue; she said she would do anything that she could to help these kids."

via CNN