Since he became a supporter of the South Baltimore Learning Center, Steven G. Tomczewski, has changed jobs, moved miles from his city roots and raised a family. His commitment to the organization has not wavered.
"I have been part of the center for 18 years, and I am not going anywhere," he said. "I have no exit strategy and no choice but to help."
The nonprofit center, which offers literacy programs, life skills classes and job training from its location on East Ostend Street, will honor Tomczewski and his former employer, Wheelabrator, at its 20th anniversary gala Saturday.
The longtime partnership began when Tomczewski was the plant manager at Wheelabrator, formerly known as Baltimore RESCO. The waste-to-energy company chose the fledgling center in its neighborhood for its community project. The start-up agency needed everything from classroom materials to meeting space as it tried to help adults finish high school, he said.
"My philosophy is to focus on organizations that have an impact on the local community," he said. "Nationally and in the city, adult literacy is a huge problem."
The center will assist more than 1,000 learners this year with literacy and computer classes. But with about 140,000 city residents ages 16 and older lacking a high school diploma, its work will continue, said Sonia Socha, the center's executive director.
"These are people who can't get jobs because they lack education," she said. "That is a real economic problem for the city."
Wheelabrator Baltimore paid the center's rent and utilities for a year, a $6,000 donation that allowed the center to develop resources to sustain itself and focus its efforts on its learners, or as Tomczewski said, "anybody who wants to learn."
Learners "have already been students, and that gig didn't work out so well for them," Tomczewski said. These are people who typically have a family, a day job and other commitments, he said.
"Yet they realize there is something lacking in their lives and make one more commitment to improve themselves," he said. "This is a program that helps people who are trying to help themselves and improve their lives."
Wheelabrator donated the center's first computer lab and its employees, particularly its electricians and plumbers, volunteered to renovate a 19th-century police station into classrooms and offices.
"We were actually recycling, and that was what our whole plant was about," Tomczewski said. "It was a mutually beneficial process. I was lucky to have been in a position that allowed me to give money with the blessing of the company."
Tomczewski, 58, a Bel Air resident who is now the executive director of the environmental operations group at the Maryland Environmental Service in Millersville, has maintained his ties to the center, serving on the board of directors and chairing numerous committees.
"We have had a long, wonderful relationship with Steve," Socha said.
Wheelabrator, which has contributed nearly $400,000 to the center in the past 18 years, also continues its assistance.
"To have Wheelabrator as our top corporate partner all these years has truly been our saving grace," Socha said. "Whenever I have needed anything, from donations, to moving something or meeting space, I have been able to count on their ongoing support."
The center has sparked in many a determination to help.
"Theirs is a real can-do attitude and a model success story for other nonprofits," Tomczewski said. "They have gone from worrying about the next roll of tape to major grant funding. They have done a great job networking with community groups, businesses and political leaders."