IF YOU want to experience a sense of Toledo's past and the great family names that have become synonymous with the Glass City's growth and prosperity, drive to West Central Avenue at Auburn Avenue and walk through the pastoral tranquillity of Woodlawn Cemetery.

There, headstones and monuments carry the names Libbey, Stranahan, Knight, and DeVilbiss. The connection between some of these distinguished families and Woodlawn continues to the present day through the appearance of many of those same family names on tile cemetery board.

Proud soldiers - Medal of Honor winners and Civil War generals - are buried there, as are numerous other Toledoans, each of whom in their own way contributed something to the city we call home.

At one time located outside the city limits, the 12 year-old cemetery now is surrounded by urban development. Yet its 160 acres filled with majestic trees, ponds, and bird life provide a sanctuary in the midst of the bustle of a big city.

That sanctuary now is in need of help. The infrastructure demands repair, and current revenue is insufficient to cover the costs, estimated at around $1,175,000. Buildings and roads have deteriorated; ponds have become clouded with silt; trees and brush clog parts of the acreage, and portions of the Iron fence around the cemetery are in disrepair.

Woodlawn is not without income. It has two small endowments, but those are woefully inadequate for the task at hand. So the recently announced fund drive to pay for these essential repairs is necessarily ambitious. But we believe that Toledo is a city that understands this kind of issue, recognizing that deterioration of the cemetery is intolerable.

We are confident that the community at large, and in particular relatives of those buried in Woodlawn, will respond generously to this worthy cause. If each were to contribute a small amount, say $10, it wouldn't take long for the cemetery's goal to be met.

In a similar fashion, the generosity of survivors of those buried at Eagle Point and Beth Shalom Cemetery is needed to assist in maintenance The Toledo Jewish Cemetery Association's income is down because of low interest rates, and it does not even have the revenues of cemeteries such as Woodlawn because burial plots are provided to all members in -standing of local temples and synagogue Perpetual care payments have been collected only since the late 1960s.

The association recently published a list of names of more than 1,200 people buried in the two locations with no provision for perpetual care of their graves. That was a controversial move, but the right way to proceed. Not only is additional revenue necessary for the proper upkeep of the gravesites, but it alerted some Toledo area residents to the fact that a relative may be buried there.

At the association's cemeteries and at Woodlawn the situation is the same. Money is needed for the proper upkeep and preservation of sites that hold special meaning both for families and friends of those buried them, and for the entire community.

Toledoans are generous with the money when the cause is right. This is such a time.