Sherwood Family Donation Sets Community Center Project in Motion

She taught Fairfax residents how to play the piano and developed the first choral music programs at Fairfax High School. He served as city council veteran, climbed positions at a local bank and helped bring a university to an already blooming community.

Together, they continue to give back to the city they love, even after his death in 2002.

In January, the Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center will open on Old Lee Highway, a building Geraldine Sherwood made possible with a donation of $5 million.

"I gave it in memory of my husband who was very active in the city," she said. "I thought it was something that would be of value to the community that he would appreciate had he been alive."

Stacy Sherwood, Geraldine's late husband, served on the Fairfax Town Council from 1956 to 1960, and served on the first Fairfax City Council from 1960 to 1964. Stacy Sherwood was a key player in Fairfax's early history in other ways. He was instrumental in bringing George Mason University to Fairfax, Sherwood said. He worked with other town officials to facilitate the purchase of the land where the university now sits. Sherwood also worked at the National Bank of Fairfax and rose there from a teller to senior vice president.

When the community center opens, it won't just serve as a tribute to Stacy Sherwood. It will honor Geraldine Sherwood too, and her passion for the community and love for the arts, said Michael McCarty, director of parks and recreation for the city of Fairfax. The center will include a 5,000-square-foot performance space with a Steinway grand piano, and a separate space for performers to rehearse.

"There's a number of people in the city that took piano lessons from her," McCarty said.

Arts and cultural performances and recreational activities will be regular features at the community center. But those wishing to use it for wedding receptions, meetings, or other events are welcome to rent space there, too. The city is accepting reservations for 2011 now, and the first 10 renters will receive a 20 percent discount, McCarty said.

"I think it's going to be an exceptional facility," Sherwood said. "It really has many opportunities for service to the community."

The budget for the community center project, including construction and design is $5.3 million. The remaining $300,000 will come from city funds and interest on the Sherwood's donation, McCarty said.  

Sherwood's donation served as the catalyst for launching Legacy for Fairfax, a program for those wishing to contribute to the Sherwood center, parks, trails, arts and other amenities in the city. Donors can be recognized through naming rights, equipment donations, on a donor wall, or in other ways. Legacy for Fairfax seeks to provide other resources to leverage taxes fees and grants to enhance the Sherwood center and other facilities, parks and programs, according to a brochure about the program.  So far, about $290,000 has been raised through the Legacy for Fairfax program just for the community center, McCarty said.

The community center will sit on about a 14,000-square-foot parcel adjacent to Van Dyck Park. The park, the largest city park in Fairfax, is the hub for the city's 21-mile network of trails. Plans dating back to Farifax's incorporation as a city showed a community center at this location, McCarty said. There were multiple attempts to bring a center to this land, as recently as 2004. But Sherwood's donation made the timing right for a community center to finally be constructed there.

"The city wasn't ready for it," he said. "The city's ready for it now."