Catonsville Group Recipient of Schaefer Estate Funds

An emotional Lainy LeBow-Sachs, a longtime friend and aide to the late said announcing the transfer of $1.4 million from a private foundation to a civic fund finally wrapped up business with his estate.

On Tuesday the Baltimore Community Foundation announced the money from a private foundation established by Schaefer was being transferred to the William Donald Schaefer Civic Fund that provides small grants to communities in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.

"It’s just a wonderful day the governor would have been so thrilled," LeBow-Sachs said.

The civic fund already has assets of about $600,000 and the addition from the estate will raise that to a nearly $2 million permanent endowment making $63,000 more in grants available each year, according to a news release. 

The Baltimore Community Foundation also announced the recipients of its 2012 Neighborhood Grant Program that is supported by the Schaefer Civic Fund, among others.

"It’s the culmination of something [Schaefer] really wanted. It’s not something made up. Everybody knows he was all about the neighborhoods," LeBow-Sachs said. 

In Catonsville, $2,400 goes to the Winters Lane Advisory Board for the first annual Catonsville Clean and Green Harvest Festival. The festival will be a one-day celebration to promote neighborhood cleanliness and community greening projects.

It will feature food, children’s activities, and workshops on curb appeal and property values, maintaining vacant properties and lots, and indigenous plants, grasses, and trees.