On May 5, Shreveport local Sylvia Goodman was recognized as a 2016 “Louisiana Legend” at the annual Louisiana Legends Awards Gala and Auction hosted by Friends of Louisiana Public Broadcasting. It’s an honor that puts her on par with some of Louisiana’s most well-known former athletes, entertainers, and public servants, but it’s also only the most recent in a long line of awards acknowledging Goodman’s passionate commitment to making her world a better place. In Shreveport, Goodman was instrumental in rallying support for two institutions – SciPort and the Robinson Film Center – both that have enriched the intellectual and cultural life of the entire Northwest Louisiana region. Her energy, dedication, and cheerful determination to bring together the right people, ideas, and resources have benefited countless other organizations and individuals. I met with Sylvia at Rhino Coffee recently to learn more about the woman who channels that special spark. I never wanted to leave.
Question: How and why did you get started as a philanthropist?
Answer: I’ve talked about this before, but my mother was really my role model – she was very philanthropic. As a child, she took me on fundraising calls sometimes, and she never came away without a check. Her project for most of my childhood was to raise money for the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem which treats people of all ages and faiths – and probably had as large an Arab population as Israeli. Also, she held this Monte Carlo fundraiser every year which was a gambling party with a spaghetti supper and she always involved me. She had me setting tables, counting poker chips, and taking up tickets! She took care of people in our town. She was the first one to take a tray of food to sick people. We had strangers coming and living with us. One family came because they had an automobile accident and people were hurt, and they stayed with us for months until the family member recovered. My older sisters tell me that when I was a little girl (I don’t remember this), a man came for supper and stayed for two years! That’s the kind of home I grew up in. My daddy was philanthropic in a different way. He was a major gardener and raised all of our vegetables, but enough tomatoes and cucumbers and all kinds of vegetables that he was always taking them to people.
Question: Did your parents talk about the importance of service, or was it more about leading by example?
Answer: This is just how you lived your life. At the Legends award when they interviewed my husband, they asked him what he thought motivated me. And I never thought about this – so I don’t really know – but this was his take on it: there is something in Judaism that is called “tikkun olam,” which means “to repair the world,” and it’s a belief that we are partners with God in repairing the world. And my husband said he sees that as my motivation.
Question: Why is it important to invest in the community, not just with financial resources but with service and volunteerism as well? What do you say when you’re trying to convince other people to support a cause or an organization?
Answer: I don’t have trust funds and founda-tions – I would have loved to have had that so I could do major, major projects. But I don’t. So, I can make a difference by giving my time and energy. So this is what I say to other people – “It would be wonderful if you could give me a million dollars – or five, or ten! But you can’t, and I can’t either, so what can we do to make this happen?” Maybe by pooling all of our resources, and energy, and time – we can do it.
Question: You’ve been very successful at seeing something that needs to be done, and identifying solutions – the creation of the SciPort science museum in Shreveport is a great example. Can you tell us mor about this?
Answer: Well, I was a science teacher, and that’s really why I got interested in SciPort. I used to be involved in the regional science fairs way back when they started at Centenary – the head of the chemistry department and I co-chaired them. Part of my role in that was having science fairs at all the elementary schools. Getting the judges for those fairs, and when I talked to the elementary teachers, I would hear over and over again, “I’m an elementary teacher because I was terrible in science and math. I’m expected to teach it. I don’t even know how to order supplies.” At that time SciPort was really just starting to get a little revved up, and I was teaching biology and zoology at LSU-S. One of my teacher friends was on the SciPort board and she said, “Sylvia, just come and listen, and then talk to me.” When I went, it was obvious it wasn’t going to happen. They had some good people on the board, but they didn’t have the right skills to pull it together. I really didn’t know much about it, but I thought, “This could be so fabulous.” I was hooked. I was able to tap into talent in the community, and soon we had a really strong board. We had a great CPA, great businessmen, great young women who did fundraisers. It was a concept that fired up people and got them excited. The original board members really worked so hard and had so much talent. The idea that we could do teacher training for these elementary teachers and give them kits to take back to their rooms, so they didn’t have to order supplies. I thought, “This can change science education in this community.” The idea that this could happen was thrilling to me, and I still am thrilled by it. I was at SciPort this past week for an endowment committee meeting, and there were about 300 or 400 school kids there on field trips – and all active! I looked at all those kids and I thought, “Wow – that’s really what it’s really all about.” It is about all of these kids, and one day, some of those kids are going to be scientists, just because of SciPort. They would have never even considered it without Sciport. I’ve seen a lot of science centers, and ours ranks with some of the best in the country. It ranks in the top 10, and we don’t have many things in Shreveport that are of that quality. So that makes me happy.
Question: Okay, switching gears a bit, because we know you have a wide variety of interests. What are some of your favorite places to travel?
Answer: I do travel a lot! We just went to Cuba, which was very interesting. We went on a Road Scholar trip, which is organized by Elderhostel, so it was very educational. The particular tour we went on was a cultural tour called the People to People tour with artists, dancers, and singers. We also met with fishermen, farmers, and ranchers. The arts there are really advanced. The people were warm and friendly. Internet is just coming to the country, so it’s going to change rapidly once that’s really in place. My husband and I go to New York once or twice a year because we’re both theatre buffs. We love Paris. I spent a month in London last summer for a major birthday. I went to a performance 30 times in 30 days – it was a major, major trip. Now, for next summer…I’ve contacted someone to do a lavender tour in Provence, and then maybe rent a little house or something for a couple of weeks. I’ve just started broaching the subject to my husband! I’ve been to Morocco, Istanbul, the Greek Isles, probably 12 countries in Europe, China, Singapore, and Thailand. I was a travel agent for three years part-time. That was my hobby. What about the rest of your free time? Where will we find you? For exercise, I take dance lessons from Carol Anglin – I take ballet, tap, and jazz. That’s on Wednesdays and Fridays, and on Tuesdays I take painting lessons from Dave Ivey at Pierremont Common. And I play bridge one afternoon if I’m in town. Three or four of us started playing, and I was the most beginning of the group because I had worked most of the years that they were playing so I didn’t really play much. So one day I asked a friend who’s a really fine bridge player to sub in our game and I thought, “She’ll never come back again.” But for some reason, she decided it was fun, so she’s been teaching us. And it’s wonderful! Because she’s a really, really fine bridge player, and I’m learning. I carry my notes around – these are notes she’s given me, and I keep adding to them. Dance is still the most fun thing I do every week. I swear I must have come out of the womb dancing, because my daddy played Al Jolson records, and from the time I could barely toddle I would put on costumes and choreograph dances to Al Jolson records, and dance for my daddy! I just don’t remember when I wasn’t dancing. Yesterday I was walking in Norton’s and I had on my American in Paris soundtrack with my earphones and I started dancing in Norton’s! And I thought, “Someone’s going to think I’m absolutely nuts, I hope nobody’s around.” But I just couldn’t just walk – I had to dance.
Question: Looking back over all of these experiences, what kind of advice would you give a younger version of yourself?
Answer: I think it would probably be to set goals. I don’t think I really set goals – my life just kind of happened. And be more disciplined than I am. I’m pretty disciplined, but I’ve wanted to write a book about my family for at least 30 years and I haven’t sat down to do it. My parents died young, and I feel like I’ve cheated my kids because they didn’t know my parents. I follow this rule when I work in the community – I set a goal and fulfill it, but I let that take precedence over my personal goals sometimes. And, learn to say no. I have tremendous guilt when I have to say no, and yet I think it’s important to have your priorities. And I don’t think I always get that straight. I think I’m a peoplepleaser, too, and sometimes in order to accomplish your personal goals you need to be willing to say no to people. And I’m not good at that. I’ve belonged to the same book club since the 1960s – it’s a serious book club, and I’m a prolific reader. I always read the acknowledgements in the back, and especially married women’s acknowledgements. And I think, how did you pull this off when you have a husband and children, and how did you discipline yourself to sit down and get this done? And sometimes they’ve gone off to writers’ workshops, but someone like a J.K. Rowling, who wrote Harry Potter in a coffee shop? How do these women have the discipline to do that?
Question: Imagine you have the opportunity to introduce someone new to this place you call home – where would you go? What would you eat?
Answer: Obviously, I’d take them to SciPort and the Robinson Film Center because those are the projects near and dear to my heart. If they were gardeners, I would take them to the American Rose Center. I would take them to the Marlene Yu Museum. And the State Exhibit Museum and the Norton Art Gallery, which to me is unbelievable. It just blows me away that we have Norton’s. As far as eating: Giuseppe’s. Imperial Cathay. Strawn’s – we go there at least once a week, and sometimes I go alone at noon. I just take a book and go!
Question: You grew up in Mississippi, and your husband is from New Orleans. How is it that we were lucky enough to have you settle in North Louisiana, in Shreveport?
Answer: We had come here for a year – my husband was an intern and then we were going back to New Orleans, but we ended up staying. And one of my first questions was, “Does Shreveport have a symphony?” And if they had said no, then I wasn’t going to stay. And it’s not that I’m a huge classical music person, but I don’t want to live in a town that doesn’t care enough to have a symphony. It just says what the values are in a community. The other thing that made me want to stay in Shreveport – and this may sound crazy – but in those years, the city had roses planted in all the neutral grounds, and beautifully maintained. And when I saw these neutral grounds with the beautiful roses, I said, “This city has a lot of pride. I want to live in a city with a lot of pride.” For someone coming from the outside, that really makes an impression. The city was just in bloom, all over. If I had the patience, bringing back the roses would be my next thing. Answer: Obviously, I’d take them to SciPort and the Robinson Film Center because those are the projects near and dear to my heart. If they were gardeners, I would take them to the American Rose Center. I would take them to the Marlene Yu Museum. And the State Exhibit Museum and the Norton Art Gallery, which to me is unbelievable. It just blows me away that we have Norton’s. As far as eating: Giuseppe’s. Imperial Cathay. Strawn’s – we go there at least once a week, and sometimes I go alone at noon. I just take a book and go!