If you grew up in Northwest Baltimore’s Forest Park community in the 1930s, ‘40s or ‘50s, there’s a good chance you attended School 64.
Decades later, alumni of 64 — now known as Liberty Elementary — are giving back to the school they loved by donating a pair of new playgrounds.
It all started about 18 months ago when Shelley Goldseker, an alumna of 64, read a Baltimore Community Foundation newsletter that mentioned the school.
“The article said BCF was looking into investing in the community around the school,” recalled Goldseker, an Owings Mills resident and member of the board of directors at the Goldseker Foundation. “So I called [fellow 64 alumna Myrna Cardin] and said, ‘Let’s make a date and go down to see 64.’
“What started as a trip down memory lane really became that and so much more,” said Goldseker, whose husband Sheldon, chair of the foundation, also attended the school as a child.
Cardin’s husband, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), was also a student at 64.
“Once we got inside the school and met the principal and students and saw the teachers and the enthusiastic grandparents and just the whole community, we knew we wanted to pay it forward in some way,” said Goldseker. “We asked the principal, ‘What can we do?’ Immediately, resoundingly, he said, ‘At the top of our list are new playgrounds.’”
After their visit to 64, the two women “put our heads together,” said Cardin, who lives in Pikesville. “We started meeting with the principal and assistant principal, and started networking using what we’ve learned from our Jewish volunteering. We knew how to network!”
One of the first people they contacted was Ken Gelula, former executive director of Comprehensive Housing Assistance Inc. (CHAI).
“I knew Ken had been involved with building a playground when he was at CHAI,” said Goldseker. “Ken said, ‘Think big. Don’t look at the negatives in the community, look at the positives and get community partners.’”
So Goldseker and Cardin reached out to Laurence Campbell, a neighborhood resident and chair of the WBC Community Development Corp. Campbell has three grown children who attended 64 and was enthusiastic about the project. He helped attract support from community members, local churches and area merchants.
In addition, Parks & People Foundation, a local nonprofit, is managing the project and the Baltimore City School System has also been involved. Foundations large and small have lent their support as well.
“It’s like when you make a challah, you braid it together,” said Goldseker.
To enlist support from alumni, Cardin and Goldseker turned to Herbert Kasoff, an experienced fundraiser.
“I was more than happy to help,” said Kasoff, 82, who attended 64.
So far, Kasoff has helped raise more than $160,000, approximately 1/3 of the project’s budget. In addition to the satisfaction of fundraising, Kasoff said he has found it gratifying to reconnect with former classmates, some of whom “I haven’t spoken to for 50 or 60 years. My brothers, cousins, neighbors all went to 64, so you always felt like you fit in. It was like a self-contained sanctuary. Everybody got off to a good start in life.”
Cardin said memories of the school and neighborhood are “ingrained” in her heart and mind.
“Beth Tfiloh [Congregation, now the home of Wayland Baptist Church] was a block away and a lot of other synagogues were in the neighborhood,” she said. “The kosher meat market was down the street. It was an idyllic neighborhood. We felt like we were in a cocoon. We knew everybody and everybody knew us.”
Cardin said she and Goldseker and fellow alumni hope the new playgrounds will “encourage a renewed sense of hope, optimism and joy” among the school’s current student body.
“That broken playground pointed out the inequities and hardships [endured by the students], and we just couldn’t imagine that the children there today wouldn’t have the same opportunities and joy that we felt when we went there,” said Cardin. “We wanted to help revitalize it.”
In the process of doing that, she said she and Goldseker have benefited from “meeting so many new and amazing people that are so community-minded.” She said she believes Parks & People Foundation would “love to see this become a model” project for other city schools.
Said Goldseker: “[The playground project] is rekindling wonderful memories, and we reminisce about lessons learned on the playground — making friends, sharing, competing, crying, your first crush. It’s been very special.”
A groundbreaking for the playground project was held in early August and construction on the playgrounds is expected to be completed by late October. Campbell said the project has been a team effort.
“It’s people with good hearts and imagination — people who lived in the community who wanted to give back, people who live in the community now, merchants, foundations,” he said. “It’s a community helping to rebuild a community.”
A committed philanthropist and community leader, Russel was president of R&H Motors.
The mother of four was a native of Winchester, Virginia, who spent most of her life in Northwest Baltimore.
The Columbia resident worked on the Gemini and Apollo space missions.
A St. Louis native, Edelman served as ambassador to the central African nation from 1987 to 1989.