Every day is another chance to learn, no matter your age.”
The Allegany County Literacy
Council is the predecessor to
the Adult Education Program at
ACM, a grant-funded program
which provides educational
services to Maryland residents
who wish to earn their high
school diploma, or basic skills
for employment or continuing
their education.
The Bernice and Arthur
Friedland Scholarship is
awarded annually to full-time
students who are U.S. citizens/
permanent residents and also
residents of Allegany County.
Students must have a 3.0 GPA
and provide an essay stating
their financial need.
Fall 2020 \ ACCESS ACM 8
She called Arthur Friedland
whom she had met through
mutual friends to ask him out
to prom. A recently discharged
sergeant in the Army Air Corps,
Arthur had been stationed in
Dodge City, Kansas, during the
war. Like Bernice, he had attended
Penn State, and he came from a
family in business. Arthur liked her
straightforward nature. And that
was it, according to Bernice. They
married in 1946.
She didn’t continue to teach for
long, as she and Arthur started
their family soon after. She’s a
proud mother to three children,
Lynn, Stephen and Bruce,
grandmother to seven, and greatgrandmother
to six.
In 1956, Arthur left the family’s
furniture business to go into
business with his wife, and they
opened Tots to Teens, a children’s
apparel store at 18 N. Centre
Street in downtown Cumberland.
It was a true partnership. For
Bernice, it was an opportunity to
watch generations of families grow
and thrive. For someone who had
grown up in retail, she enjoyed
the hustle and bustle of the
downtown and learned volumes
about working with others and
handling operations.
Bernice soon found new ways
to employ these skills. As Arthur
became heavily involved in the
Allegany County Chamber of
Commerce, the Downtown
Cumberland Business Association,
the Downtown Development
Council, the Lions Club, the
Cumberland Country Club and
the American Legion, among
others, Bernice championed issues
concerning women and children.
Even now in uncertain times,
she continues to believe that most
people want to give back to their
community. “By helping someone
else, it increases the capacity of
the person giving more than it
does the person receiving.”
Organizations were her way
to participate in worthy causes.
Bernice helped to found the
Allegany County Commission for
Women, and the Allegany County
Women’s Refuge, a precursor
to the Family Crisis Resource
Center. It was hands-on work
that she enjoyed, even when
she would receive late night calls
to relocate women and families
during emergency situations.
She served on the Maryland
State Commission for Women
and chaired its Hall of Fame
committee, and was president
of the American Association of
University Women.
She tutored adults as a founder
of the Adult Literacy Council
and served on the boards of the
Allegany County Library, the
Allegany County Child Abuse
Task Force, and the Maryland
Humanities Council. A long-time
member of the historic B’er
Chayim Temple in Cumberland,
she was the first woman to serve
as its president.
Despite working full-time
and a robust volunteer schedule,
Bernice invested in her own
learning by attending then-
Frostburg State College during
the summers to earn her Master’s
degree in Humanities. She wrote
her thesis on the treatment of
incarcerated women, going so
far as to visit the Alderson Federal
Prison Camp, the first women’s
federal prison established in 1927,
in West Virginia with Arthur to
conduct interviews. “I’m
embarrassed to say I took off
my jewelry for the interviews,”
she admits.
Around the same time, Bernice
was approached by Allegany
Community College President
Donald Alexander to join the ACC
Foundation’s Board of Directors as
a founding member in 1982. She
didn’t know Don personally but
she knew the college’s reputation
in the community. After a short
tenure, she was asked to join
the college’s Board of Trustees.
Appointed by Maryland Governor
Harry Hughes, she served from
1984 to 1998, including seven
years as vice-chair and two years
as chair.
In March of 1989, Arthur and
Bernice established an annual
scholarship at ACM for students
in need. Months later in October,
they made the difficult decision to
close Tots to Teens after 33 years
of operations. It was a bittersweet
decision, occurring several years
after the opening of the Country
Club Mall.
Bernice moved off of the
college’s Board of Trustees in
1998 to return to her original role
as an ACM Foundation member.
She flourished in the role, and
fundraised extensively on the
Foundation’s behalf, at one point
exceeding its annual campaign’s
goal by over $400,000.
A believer in continual
learning, Bernice is active in the
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