Char Fifer learned the basics at Willard Elementary SchoolÌý— her ABCs, how to write cursive, how to multiply and divide.Ìý
There's a picture ofÌýCharÌý— then Char Sheldon, probably in second grade in the 1940sÌý—Ìý reading to younger children in her classroom in the four-room school.
And Fifer remembers the principal, Miss Mikulas, who was also a teacher and lived downtown at a hotel that was like a boarding house for single women.Ìý
Fifer remembers "milk lunch," a mid-morning snack with a carton of milk and two graham crackers.
Every school day for seven years, Fifer, her dark-brown hair pulled back into pigtails, walked the block from her home in west Lincoln to Willard Elementary.Ìý
And she remembers when children, including the girls in their skirtsÌý— "remember, no pants were allowed"Ìý— would dig up dandelions in the school lawn, putting the plant carcasses into brown paper bags.
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"That was one of our activities for recreation," said Fifer.
Willard Elementary, 1245 S. Folsom St., was built in 1918 and used as a school for 50 years, until the children were bused to Lakeview Elementary, 300 Capitol Beach Blvd., in 1968.
In good weather Fifer still walks that block from her home to the former school, now a community center, to play monthly Saturday bunco with friends, in the same room she once attended school.Ìý
And in another year, when the building celebrates its 100th anniversary, Fifer will be heading into an expanded and remodeled building, a modern community center for west Lincoln.
In 1980, Willard was reopened permanently as a community center. It now serves several hundred people a week, including toddlers in day care, before- and after-school programs for middle-school students, and social programs, including bingo, bunco and potlucks for seniors and others.
It is the only human-service agency in the west Lincoln neighborhood of modest single-family homes and new apartments. There is no pool, no branch library, said Kathy LeBaron, who is heading a capital campaign that is raising $1.8 million to expand and improve the building. Ìý
"It is important for the neighborhood," she said.
The brick building is solidly constructed. It just needs renovating to make it more modern, said LeBaron, who handles community engagement for nearby Lincoln Industries, owned by her family.
That campaign has almost reached its $1.8 million goal, and construction is expected to begin in May.
The renovation will include a three-story addition,ÌýorÌý2,320 square feet,Ìýto the building, giving the center more room for its day care programs, better space for the teenagers in before- and after-school programs, and larger areas for meeting rooms and family gatherings.
It will include a new roof and windows, an energy-efficient heating and air-conditioning system, handicap-accessible bathrooms, a new elevator, and a better Wi-Fi system so middle-school students can easily use their Chromebooks to do homework, said Janelle Soderling, the center director.
Now teens often must connect to the Wi-Fi at the doorway to the office area and hope it holds as they walk back to the teen area.Ìý
The renovation preserves the brickwork that gives the building its exterior grace and beauty.Ìý
"Willard is a hidden gem," said Irene Williams, chairwoman of the nonprofit board that owns and operates the center.Ìý
"It is very neighborhood-centric. I don't think the rest of Lincoln knows what we are about and what great services we provide for needy families," she said.Ìý
In addition to traditional preschool and after-school programs for children, the center serves as a meeting place for private family gatherings and neighborhood groups, including a weekly Ukrainian school to keep the Ukrainian written and spoken language alive.
The nonprofit community center board bought the building from the city in 2013.
The city had maintained the building to meet safety standards, but didn’t do anything cosmetic because of budget issues, LeBaron said.
The board considered moving, rather than renovating, but decided the iconic schoolhouse, a beautiful building adjacent to a city park, was worth restoration, LeBaron said.
"That location, next to a park that children use every day, you couldn’t replicate anywhere else," she said.
BVH Architects and Cheever Construction are partnering on the project.Ìý
The committee will also be seeking $100,000 from the city next month, as a match for a foundation gift, said LeBaron.
After that the campaign needsÌýanother $35,000 to meet its $1.8 million goal. That money helps match an Omaha foundation commitment, LeBaron explained.
Willard is a family affair for Char Fifer. Her eight brothers and sisters all attended the school. And her daughter, Julie Cervantes-Salomons, attended the elementary school until it closed in 1968.Ìý
And on warm Saturdays, she can hear the children of the 21st century playing in the park, as she plays bunco in the community center with her friends.Ìý
“I’m happy the school is being saved and being used. I’m glad they got that money," she said.Ìý