ATLANTIC CITY — Walking past groups of children playing at the Boys & Girls Club summer camp Wednesday afternoon was a group of 85- and 86-year-olds coming back to the city to give back.
The group — all members of the Atlantic City High School Class of 1950 — returned to the city to present scholarships to two graduating members of the Boys & Girls Club.
“We had the money, and we are all getting older,” said Debbie Rosenberg, 86, a member of the class’ reunion committee who came up with the idea to give scholarships to students.
Rosenberg, of Margate, said whatever they had left over from reunions they’ve done in the past, they’ve banked. Now, as time passes, it was time to give back to a good cause — just ahead of their 70-year reunion, she said.
The group of seven 1950 alumni stood Wednesday on the second floor of the club to hand out $1,000 to two students: Liosmely Brito Carrasco, 18, of Atlantic City, who graduated from Oakcrest High School; and Shay Steele, 17, of Atlantic City, who graduated from the Atlantic County Institute of Technology.
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Brito Carrasco is headed to Atlantic Cape Community College to study criminal justice and later hopes to transfer to Talladega College. Steele plans to attend Morgan State University in Maryland to study civil engineering.
Both have been members of the Boys & Girls Club of Atlantic City for years.
“They just embrace you with open arms,” Steele said. “This is going to help me a lot.”
Rosenberg brought her yearbook with her to the presentation, along with her daughter and granddaughter, to look at with her fellow students and reminisce.
Every time they get together, she said, “it’s like we never left each other.”
There were slightly more than 410 members of the 1950 graduating class, and the alumni Wednesday said there were about 45 classmates at the reunion last year.
Most of the crew still lives in the area, although a few head to Florida during the winter.
Rosenberg said she hadn’t known too much about the Boys & Girls Club of Atlantic City organization until recently, and the committee wanted to devote the money to two students there.
She said they still have leftover funding and hope to repeat the effort next year.
Sally Roik, 85, of Egg Harbor Township, said the committee told her about the effort and she was on board.
“It’s a necessity for the kids,” she said.
