By Caroline Fuchs
“I’m proud of us. I’m proud of Greenbelt.” That’s how Pamela Gregory, a resident of Greenbelt for the past 32 years, expresses her passion for the community. An avid volunteer and participant in community activities, Pamela is a “communitarian” of the highest degree, and currently serves on the board of directors of the Greenbelt Museum.
Pamela’s volunteer story is uniquely hers yet it follows the path of many other volunteers who value the unique living environment that is Greenbelt. Friends that were Greenbelters inspired Pamela and her husband Richard Marcus to move here in 1984. She immediately witnessed people making a difference as artists, as activists, and as supporters of various Greenbelt community organizations.
Pamela and her husband lived next door to Benjamin Abramowitz, the celebrated 20th century artist, who made the cooperative community of Greenbelt his home in the early 1940s. Abramowitz was free-thinking and ahead of his time, according to Pamela. She was fortunate to have been his neighbor and was pleased to be able to gift two Abramowitz paintings to the Greenbelt Museum.
With today’s emphasis on the “new and shiny,” Pamela is pleased to represent the Greenbelt Museum, an institution that allows reflection on the past, the town, and the shared community culture. After retiring from work as a law librarian in 2007, Pamela joined the museum as a docent, a fundraiser, and a volunteer at both the silent auction and for the capital campaign. She recently traveled to the West Virginia town of Arthurdale, the first experimental resettlement community of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Pamela observed how this living historical town tells its story to the world so she can bring that new inspiration back home to Greenbelt.
The Greenbelt Museum has been a past recipient of grants from the Greenbelt Community Foundation (GCF) and is participating in the celebration of GCF’s 10th Anniversary awareness campaign Explore Your Greenbelt—a series of 14 monthly events featuring organizations that have received GCF funding. Sponsors of GCF’s Explore Your Greenbelt include the Greenbelt News Review, Paradyme Management and Beltway Plaza.
Pamela notes that “there are not many places left like Greenbelt,” and advises residents to get out and volunteer to keep the community vibrant and service oriented. A fun and easy way to participate in the Greenbelt community would be to join the museum sponsored Roosevelt Ride, a bicycle ride celebrating the New Deal legacy of the community, being held Saturday, June 5 at 11:00 am at the museum, 10 Court Crescent Drive.