Education is a passion for community volunteer




SOPHIA FISCHER/Acorn Newspaper AT YOUR SERVICE- Barry Myerson, with his daugher Molly, 14, has made serving the community his life's work. Molly and her brother Warner, 11, are following in dad's volunteer footsteps.

SOPHIA FISCHER/Acorn Newspaper AT YOUR SERVICE- Barry Myerson, with his daugher Molly, 14, has made serving the community his life’s work. Molly and her brother Warner, 11, are following in dad’s volunteer footsteps.


Barry Myerson has a wish he’d like to come true.

“If everyone could give something back, outside of writing a check, whether it’s to your church, temple, sports, whatever your passion is, it could do incredible things,” said Myerson, a resident of Oak Park. “We’re so blessed to live where we do that it’s almost an obligation to give back.”

That philosophy propels Myerson’s life. He seems to be everywhere, speaking before parent groups, attending community events and coaching on local athletic fields. He jokes that he’s even sick of himself.

Oak Park residents know Barry Myerson as chair of Friends of Oak Park Schools, a nonprofit group that provides supplemental funding to the school district. Myerson has led Friends for more than three years.

Officers and staff at the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station know him as a member of their booster club.

Families know him through his longtime involvement with the Triunfo YMCA as a board member and leader with the Indian Guides and Trailblazer programs.

He’s also been a longtime baseball and soccer coach.

Myerson’s name is also familiar because of his wife, Andrea, who served on Red Oak Elementary’s Parent-Faculty Club and is now helping the school district improve its recycling efforts.

Daughter Molly, 14, was involved in the student councils at Red Oak and at Medea Creek Middle School, and son Warner, 11, was president of Red Oak’s student council and will join Medea’s Associated Student Body as a sixth-grader this year.

Kids and education are Myerson’s passion.

Through Friends, he has helped raise more than $300,000 over the past four years.

This year’s funding will go toward a districtwide science specialist and the music program at all three elementary schools.

“The advantage of a district as small as ours is that you can truly effect change,” Myerson said.

The community expects the quality education Oak Park is known for, Myerson said, but continuing that same level of quality with less funding is challenging.

Friends had been in existence for several years, but lost its drive when the state was flush with money, Myerson said. He worked with another Oak Park parent and former superintendent Marilyn Lippiatt to revive the organization as the need for supplemental funding arose. Myerson is the only one left of the original five board members.

“We needed to fundraise if we wanted to add programs to this little district that could,” Myerson said.

But rather than creating new programs the group found itself saving them when the state began cutting back education funding. Last year was the first year Friends funded something new- the handson science specialist.

“The science program is so exciting to the board because it follows through on what our initial intent was,” Myerson said.

Although he lives in Ventura County, Myerson joined the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station booster club 18 months ago through a friend. He’d like to see a similar group formed in Ventura County. The club raised funds that paid for the construction of a $60,000 gym for use by the deputies. The club donates funds to Special Olympics and other causes on behalf of the police and provides emergency first-aid supplies for patrol cars.

When the recent Malibu fires hit and officers needed protective masks, Myerson and other booster members purchased them.

A Chicago native, Myerson earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from Northern Illinois University. Shortly afterward he followed his parents and siblings to California in 1982, and he moved to Oak Park with his wife 13 years ago.

Although Molly Myerson admits to being a little embarrassed by her dad, she thinks “it’s cool” that he’s involved in the community.

When not volunteering, Myerson works with corporations to retire technology assets that still have value. He moves the technology to companies that can use it, mostly overseas.

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