Sandy and Tom complement each other beautifully-as a couple married for 43 years and as volunteers at Booker T. for more than ten. Together, through their generosity, caring, and commitment, they have made significant contributions to the scope and quality of programs offered at Booker T. and provided life-changing experiences for many of our children.

Sandy and Tom met in junior high school, started dating in their senior year and were married while they were both seniors at Western Michigan University. They have two daughters. Leslie and her husband and their two children (another is due in February) live in Oklahoma City. Heather, her husband and four children live in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

When Tom's job brought them to New York from Tulsa, OK, they joined All Souls Church where they learned about Booker T.

A former teacher, Sandy started volunteering at the after-school and says, "I really fell in love with many of the kids and Lamarra especially. She was five years old and so cute. Even at that time she wanted to be a singer. She is still a cute young lady and is very active in the choir now. I always remember her with her big beautiful smile…just so happy," Sandy says, herself happy at the memory.

She began doing more tutoring and eventually started a math club with incentives for the kids to complete their work, such as individual trips to McDonald's and Rockefeller Center. The math club was very popular as well as effective. Many of the children have said that Miss Sandy taught them more about math than they learned at school.

While it was her love of working with children that motivated Sandy initially, once she got to know Rev. Ricksy and Kim Wright and the staff, Sandy says, "it's like being part of a big family and you want to keep doing more."

And that she did. Over the years, Sandy has continued to tutor students in the after-school, shopped for and wrapped Christmas presents, organized many Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine's Day parties, baked brownies and decorated cupcakes, attended Poetry Night and Ancestors' Night.

Sandy has developed relationships with McDonald's, Scholastic News and Hasbro-each of which makes a valuable contribution to the center-and is also active in development. She has worked with Mary-Ella Holst on organizing the annual jazz concert for the past seven years and she and Tom regularly host development and planning meetings in their home.

Tom grew up on a farm in Michigan and comes from a family of teachers-his mother and five siblings were all in education. "I was the black sheep," he says, "I did teach high school biology and chemistry for a year but did not care for it." Instead he took a job with a small company, where he had worked part time while attending college. Three years later, the company was acquired by Dover Corporation and Tom, at the age of 28, was made president.

A succession of positions as head of increasingly larger operating companies led to his becoming C.E.O. of Dover (a multi-billion dollar, NYSE-traded diversified manufacturer of a wide range of products for industrial and commercial use) and their move to New York. Tom says, "We thought that we would work here for Dover for 10 years or so and as soon as that was done, we'd go back to Oklahoma. Well, to our surprise, we found out we are New Yorkers. But we just didn't know it."

When Tom mentioned to Sandy that the only thing he missed in the city was yard work and that great feeling of "instant gratification" after spring cleanup. She suggested that a lot near The Church of the Resurrection, where the Booker T. Washington Learning Center had two modular classrooms, could use some work.

On his second visit, Rev. Ricksy and Tom worked side by side and talked "about how he [Rev. Ricksy] got the whole thing started… I was intrigued with the fact that they were working with kids over an extended period of time, not just an hour or so of contact once a week. I liked the idea and thought it had a chance of making an impact on their lives," Tom says.

"Fundraising never appealed to me," he continues, "but what I found out is that nothing else had ever touched me quite like Booker T. has." Tom's role as Chairman of the Friends of Booker T. and of the Development Committee has been both "fun and frustrating. Increased funding has enabled the center to expand its programs but it has also made the job of finding enough money more difficult."

Both Sandy and Tom are sensitive to the complex issues children face in breaking the cycle of poverty and the need for long-term commitment to a family "to get them though the rough spots." They have seen how Booker T. is a stabilizing factor for many children. "There is a consistency and a connectedness the children feel," Sandy says, "Booker T. provides a level of individual attention that is not possible with larger organizations."

They encourage others to visit the center to see if Booker T. is for them and if weekday afternoons aren't possible to consider mentoring or volunteering on Saturdays. "People shouldn't feel daunted by the fact that the center is north of 96th Street. The neighborhood has a great beat," Tom says. Sandy adds, "They may be surprised by how much fun and how rewarding it is to work with the children and staff."

Thank you Sandy and Tom for touching our lives with your warm and generous spirit…for all the times you just listen…and for working so selflessly on our behalf.