From one end of the dusty, pockmarked field at Mervo to the other, there were smiles across the faces of giant football players, tiny cheerleaders, coaches and teachers alike, owing little to the approach of summer and their freedom from each other for three months.
The collective happiness among the Mustangs, and the dignitaries assembled this week, was about the hope that field would yield when fall comes and the dirt and weeds are replaced by a new artificial turf surface.
In what is seemingly becoming a regular occurrence, the joy was caused by an action of the Ravens, who have become the best friend a Baltimore City school athlete could have.
Already, the team has performed a similar stadium reconstruction project at Poly, as well as outfitted all of the city's football teams, along with the boys and girls basketball squads at all of the high schools.
The Mervo project, which will cost an estimated $1 million, was aided by contributions from Ravens cornerback Chris McAlister, owner Steve Bisciotti, the team's community foundation and the NFL Youth Football Fund. It will replace the grass field with a turf surface identical to the ones that the Ravens practice on and play on at home.
In addition, the team will construct new bleachers as well as build a new ticket booth.
Separately, Bisciotti and linebacker Ray Lewis have purchased helmets for each high school football team, while safety Ed Reed and tight end Daniel Wilcox, among others, have donated their time and funded projects at schools.
"This [the Mervo renovation] is just a continuation of all that," said Ravens team president Dick Cass. "We want to see Baltimore City high school football become successful. If kids are playing high school football, they're in school."
Sure, community involvement is part of the price big-money sports teams should pay for appropriating the identity of a city or state in their own name. Usually, that kind of participation begins and ends with the kind of "grip and grin" ceremonies that happened Tuesday, where a player or a team official brings a big check, shakes a few hands and smiles for cameras.
But the Ravens have gone past the symbolic to provide real help to a school system in desperate need.
"The Ravens have figured out that it's important for them to be good civic citizens," said Brian D. Morris, chair of the city's Board of School Commissioners for the past three years.
