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Hanby receives gift of computer network By VICKI GUARINO GOLD HILL -- One of the county's oldest schools is taking a giant leap into the 21st century thanks to the generosity of the community and one long-ago student. The 1910 Hanby Middle School will have a new schoolwide computer network and a new technology lab full of computers ready when students return to school in the fall. Technicians are running cable and making hookups around Hanby this week. Much of the work is being funded by a $20,000 gift from former student Ron Beman and his wife, Dawn Trudeau, now living in Washington. Beman graduated from Hanby's eighth grade in 1958. "Our hope is that this contribution will enable you to see how complex and diverse our world is and how to prepare to be successful in competing in it," Beman and Trudeau said in a letter to Hanby students. The couple's gift is one of the largest personal donations ever received by the Central Point School District, school officials say. When the school began a fund-raising effort for computers two years ago, Hanby's technological state of affairs was, to use Barker's term, "dismal." Students coming from the two elementary schools in Hanby's enrollment area -- Patrick and Sams Valley -- had better equipment the did Hanby. Sixth-graders were taking a technological step backward when they moved up to the 350-student middle school. Two years ago, a group of parents came to Barker with a request that the school and the community do something about the problem. An anonymous donor would contribute $7,500 to the effort if the school would match the money, dollar for dollar, by March 1. Barker couldn't say no. She felt obligated to provide students with Internet access and up-to-date equipment despite tight school budgets and many competing financial needs. But Barker wasn't sure how the school would raise so much money. Numerous garage sales, candy sales and PTO events followed. Last winter, as the deadline neared, Hanby students, staff and parents had raised much of the money but not quite enough. At about that time, Beman and Trudeau were traveling though the region and stopped to check on the old school. "He wanted to see if it was still here," Barker says. He followed with a phone call to Barker, asking if there was some need he could help fill. Barker mentioned her deadline, and Beman promised to help out. By March 1, however, Hanby fund-raisers had managed to meet the matching grant on their own -- and with some cash to spare. So Beman asked Barker to come up with a wish list of computer equipment that would further aid the school. Barker, technology coordinator Linda Elder and teacher Kelly Rogney wrote a long list. They wanted to link all Hanby classrooms on one network, complete the new lab and launch a writing program for students this fall. Beman and Trudeau responded with the large check. "It's kind of a dream coming true," says Barker as she watches technicians run cable. Students described their appreciation in thank-you letters to the couple. But many students asked Beman and Trudeau what prompted their generosity. Beman responded with a description of an idyllic but isolated and naive childhood in Gold Hill. Television was brand new to the valley. Days were spent fishing, swimming and wandering in the woods -- a fine childhood, but lacking nonetheless, Beman said he learned later. "After getting out of high school, I found that my choices in what to do in life were very limited," he told students in a letter at the end of the school year. Through his gift, Beman said, he and his wife hope to widen Hanby students' horizons. "It's up to each of you to get all you can out of the computers in your school," Beman wrote. "It's a tool to help all of you develop yourselves to make the most of your lives." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA