100 years of Rotary - 100 computers in the schools

The story really starts on October 13, 2003. That's when I attended a meeting of the Zilina Rotary Club and got a verbal agreement to do a joint project, if we could find the right one. (Rotary is very big on International projects.) The next day my cousin told me his wife had been asking him to get a computer for his son's school. I said, "You mean a computer for his classroom, don't you." 'No," he replied, "for the school." It was rare that a school had any computers for the students. My next comment was, "There's our project."

We called his friend in the Zilina Rotary who liked the idea and over the next six months I got verbal approval from the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club (BBRC), my club, the Bellevue School District and the Zilina Rotary. I also met with people from Computers for the World to get an understanding of these projects (I'm now on the board of this organization). We then floated the idea past the students and their parents are realized getting qualified kids to go on this trip would not be a problem.

I won't even begin to even try and tell you how much paperwork is involved. I started preparing, reviewing budgets from other projects of this type, collecting quotes from vendors and working on the project plan. The next step was the writing of the grant to The Rotary Foundation (TRF) for matching funds (matching the money contributed by the BBRC and Zilina Rotary). I was fortunate that a former Rotary District Governor agreed to edit the grant and on August 20, 2004 I submitted it to our districts grant person.

 I feel lucky that my processing person at TRF was anal retentive. She caught every little thing that the approval committee might question and I responded immediately. After only two revisions it went to the committee and was approved very quickly. Then we waited for the money. I found out that at TRF the finance department runs the operation and nobody will do anything to cross them.

After approval all final requirements were to TRF by early January. The check came about six weeks later. In the meantime my Visa card got a workout as we had to pay for supplies, equipment, packing materials and more. At the same time, the students at Newport and their teacher, Jeff Mason, were busy preparing and packing the 120 computers, monitors, keyboards and mice. All donated equipment by the way.

On February 18, 2005 Maersk picked up our 20 foot container for its trip to Slovakia. However, first it had to go to Montreal (to get on a ship) and enjoyed a nice 10 day, unplanned, stay there. After crossing the ocean it got another 10 day stay in Rotterdam (again, unplanned) before getting on a train and truck for Zilina.

On the night of April 7, 21 of us departed the Seattle airport and made it to Prague the night of April 8. After two nights there to acclimate everyone to the time zone we drove 5 hours to Zilina. We met up with fellow BBRC member Peter Powell and the next day, April 11, we met at 8:30 a.m. to start the project. Only one problem. The container was still in Bratislava. It arrived that afternoon as we spent the day wiring the first two schools. That night the kids unloaded and sorted all the gear. Over the next three days all the computers were installed, networked, had anti-virus software loaded (the operating system and Office - donated by Microsoft -  were put on in Bellevue) and tested.

A few long days got it done so we could take Friday off and take the kids to Auschwitz. One of the only places that can make 13 loud kids quiet. The kids and other chaperones left on Sunday for Prague and a Monday flight. I and my family stayed for a Monday celebration and press conference with local TV, radio, national TV and newspaper reporters. We also had the mayors from all the cities where we installed computers, all the school directors and Scott Thayer, the Charge d'affaires from the US Embassy. An exhausting 11 days but well worth it.

We did find out that during the year prior to our visit the schools got some computers when Deutsche Telecom bought Slovak Telecom and part of the regulatory approval was they had to provide 5 computers for every school. One school director told us that the lab our kids installed in one afternoon took the government people six weeks to do (and we did more computers). Many directors told me we should come back with more, how it really helps them educate the kids. One teacher told us that they had two empty rooms and if we wanted to fill them with computers we were more than welcome to. Best of all were the smiles and excitement on the kids faces as they watched the computers being installed and as they lined up outside the labs to use them.

To put this in perspective, Slovakia is recovering from over 40 years of Soviet rule. This part of the country is recovering from a horrible economic recession when after the Iron Curtain collapsed the new President dismantled their heavy industry (tanks and similar were the top products). The unemployment rate was over 30% for awhile. They are coming back. KIA is putting in a new factory, hiring 3,000 people and it will mean 10,000 jobs including suppliers, etc. For today's children to compete in the world economy they need to be able to use computers and be comfortable with them. One school we did has 700 students, they now have 35 computers which means one per 20 students. That's maybe 1-1.5 hours per week in front of the computer for each kid. And most don't have computers at home. It's a start though.

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