Alumni helping Dieruff High School students
A 50th class reunion is a big event. It’s a time to look back and reflect.
Alumni at a recent reunion at Dieruff High School looked forward, too.
What began as a discussion by the Class of 1970 about how to give back to their alma mater has turned into a bigger community project to build an outdoor classroom at the school on Allentown’s East Side.
The plan is to transform the courtyard between the buildings into a space with benches/ student work areas, a teaching dias, and possibly risers for musical performances, a platform for telescopes and other amenities. It will be solar-powered.
Native plants are being placed around the existing pond to increase opportunities for science observation and experiments.
The struggling Allentown School District doesn’t have the money for such things. But students still deserve them.
The community previously came together to revive Dieruff ’s treasured planetarium, which had been closed for nearly a decade because the district could not afford repairs.
Kudos to the Class of 1970 for thinking so big. It would have been easy to make a donation of a bench or picnic table. Or buy computers or other materials that would have a limited lifespan.
An outdoor classroom will provide opportunities for students for generations.
“This space is really cool. There is a lot you can do with it,” said Rob Bell, Class of 1970 reunion committee chairman. “Let’s dream big and make it happen.”
He went to Dieruff Principal Michael Makhoul last year — the 50th reunion was delayed a year due to the pandemic — to ask what the class could do to help future Huskies. Makhoul suggested the classroom.
“I think that anytime you can get them outside the four walls of a classroom it leads to more engagement and a sense of excitement,” Makhoul said. “So it’s a good thing, for sure.”
The project is in its infancy. It’s still being planned and there’s a lot of money to raise.
Bell estimates the project will cost $50,000 to $100,000. About $10,000 has been raised so far.
The courtyard has a pond, stocked with Koi and surrounded by trees. There is a large grassy area and a hillside that provide a natural amphitheater. It has been a habitat for ducks and geese.
Science students use the area now. The planned outdoor classroom will be open to anyone, ranging from art students who need inspiration to literature classes holding poetry readings.
“The ultimate vision is to create a learning space out of this beauty,” Makhoul told me. “If we can turn nature into a natural learning environment within the confines of the school, you can almost take a field trip, literally outside.”
The classroom will be named the Donald R. Marushak Outdoor Education Center, to recognize an environmental pioneer at Dieruff and in the Lehigh Valley.
Marushak taught biology and environmental sciences at Dieruff in the 1960s and 1970s. He was named Pennsylvania’s Science Teacher of the Year in 1968.
He championed recycling before it became common, Bell said, and created a student environmental club, the Swamp Stompers.
In 1970, his public service took him in another direction — city government. He served as the first environmental programs coordinator for Allentown. He rose to superintendent of parks, working for 20 years before retiring in 1997.
Under his watch, the city’s park system blossomed.
Trout Creek Park, Lehigh Parkway, Keck Park, Roosevelt Park and Buck Boyle Park were constructed. Open space was acquired. Marushak, who died in 2014, led development of the holiday tradition Lights in the Parkway.
About half the money raised for the outdoor classroom in his name was donated by Marushak’s son, Adam, a philosophy professor in China.
“He was thrilled that his dad is going to be honored,” Bell told me.
Other donations have come from “people who appreciate
Don and who think this is a great idea and want to get it done,” he said.
Some Dieruff students know what’s being planned. They’ve helped by buying some of the plants to be placed near the pond.
“It’s an opportunity that not everybody has,” said Leila Little, chair of the science department at Dieruff. “They’re excited about it.”
Tax-deductible donations for the project may be made through the Allentown School District Foundation.
Checks can be sent to ASD Foundation, 31 S. Penn St., P.O. Box 328, Allentown, PA, 18105, Attn: Vicki Newhard. Checks should be made payable to Allentown School District Foundation and reference Dieruff outdoor classroom. Otherwise, donations will go to the foundation’s general fund.
Credit card and PayPal payments can be made through the foundation’s website, asdf. allentownsd.org. To direct your donation to the project, enter “Dieruff outdoor classroom” in the instructions field.
Contact reunion committee chairman Rob Bell, rabjr@ptd. net.