Staff photo / Brandon Cantwell Stanley and Barbara Schwartz stand on the front lawn of Liberty High School for a picture during their special day of volunteering Friday morning. Stanley and Barbara, a Liberty graduate, were married in Youngstown 60 years ago. Out of the 70 volunteers who came from across the country to help, 40 of them were immediate family, according to Stanley.

LIBERTY — A couple’s return to the Mahoning Valley in celebration of an anniversary reached its climax in a very special way, giving back to the community where it all began for one of them Friday morning.

Stanley and Barbara Schwartz celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary with a trip to Liberty Local Schools, where the district, in partnership with United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, welcomed the couple and nearly 70 of their family members and close friends. Forty immediate family members comprised the majority of the group, according to Stanley.

The group spent the morning completing improvement projects in various areas across the campus, including installing new mulch around landscaping in several locations, such as the flagpole in front of the high school. Additionally, they planted trees and built shelves in Blott Guy Elementary’s food pantry — which were subsequently filled with goods by volunteers.

They also had the chance to read to elementary students, and a tree was planted near the football stadium with a plaque to commemorate the family.

“I think we’re going to leave our mark here in a very special way when we came up with the idea to put a tree here and put a little plaque for the Schwartz family,” Barbara said. “It’s a way I say of giving back. It’s really not. It’s just part of wonderful happiness.”

Stanley said they did something special for each decade mark of their anniversary, starting with their 30th anniversary, which was celebrated in Ireland with a small group, then their 40th in Colorado, riding horses.

Stanley said the idea for the day of service began with their recent celebration in Las Vegas.

“We went to a school and everybody was surprised and we pitched in,” Barbara said.

Planning for the day of service began a year ago, when the couple reached out to the United Way to connect with the district to find meaningful ways to contribute.

Stanley said when they first sent a notice of their 60th anniversary celebration, they asked for individuals’ names from their passport — leading the group to be misdirected.

“They all thought they were going to Italy; they all got excited. And then we sent out a notice of well, ‘We’re taking you to the city of ‘You’, and left it at that,” Stanley said. “Everybody looked it up, what is the city of You?”

Stanley said 95% of individuals in the group haven’t been to Youngstown, resulting in them putting together an itinerary that kicked off on Wednesday, introducing them to the Valley’s charms — starting with dinner at The Grand Resort in Howland, where the group stayed.

He said the very next day, they went to the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry & Labor (also known as the Youngstown Steel Museum), where Martha Pallante, a Humanities and Social Sciences professor at Youngstown State University, led a presentation and tasting with Youngstown foods.

Stanley said they held a poker night with the Knights of Columbus in Girard, who put together a poker tournament with the group, where no money was gambled, just gifts.

He said with the day of service, the group had no idea which tasks they were doing. They were chosen by putting the eight tasks the district needed into a bag and pulling them at random.

Last returning to the Mahoning Valley for a wedding 30 years ago, Barbara said she was “in heaven,” recalling the things that have changed in the area.

“To see the things that were here, along with a few of my friends that are here, that grew up here, we’re all looking around,” Barbara said. “As an example, our niece walked in before (us), and she went to Liberty and she says, ‘It’s so weird, I’m coming into the school,’ and she graduated from Liberty a while ago.”

Barbara said she was “overwhelmed” with how YSU had changed, taking a summer class as part of her curriculum at The Ohio State University — back when the university was just “Youngstown State.”

“I’ve been back to my old house, which is still there, and I met the lady who lives there now — and she’s become a friend,” Barbara said. “We’re meeting people who have been in our lives one way or another or connected, and it’s been a joy to be here.”

OFFICIALS’ REACTIONS

Superintendent Brian Knight said having the Schwartzs and company at the school was cool, seeing that many people gathered in the high school’s auditorium, then watching them get to work throughout the school’s campus.

“They addressed a lot of needs that will help make our school look better and also a place where kids want to be,” Knight said. “We had a lot of cosmetic stuff done throughout the campus, some mulching, addressing a retention wall.”

“We did have volunteers who went into the classrooms, and they had the opportunity to mingle with the kids and see how our teachers are acting in the classroom, how our kids are acting in the classroom,” Knight said. “And then they had the opportunity to even engage by reading some stories to the kids — that’s just a cool experience for our kids when it’s all said and done.”

With it being the middle of the day, Knight said he hadn’t heard anything from staff about having the group in the school. He anticipated that a lot of the staff would want to see more groups volunteer around the school in the future.

“It’s our responsibility to make sure that people understand that giving back to our district is always welcome,” Knight said.

Liberty High School Principal Thomas Zetts said Stanley and Barbara’s group arrived at the school on schedule, asking for a brief background of the district, which officials provided. He said they also had the chance to meet the administration’s bigger players.

Zetts shared Knight’s sentiment about community involvement at the school.

“As much community involvement for the good, we’ll obviously always take; this is a very unique situation that they’re coming up from Miami,” Zetts said. “But you know, if other groups would like to contribute around here, there’s always ways to help.

“We’re just grateful for the family — they’re extremely positive people,” he added. “There’s several people here who graduated from Liberty in the 60s and 70s, and they represent what Liberty is all about, really, really well, and we’re glad to have them as ambassadors.”