Nov. 30, 2001 – A total of 14 learning establishments across the Virgin Islands have received a gift of more than 100 recycled computers, all Internet-ready, for use by students.
The story began in August of 2000, said Michael Bornn, with a conversation between Mayor Lewis Billings of Provo, Utah, and Virgin Islands delegates, Bornn among them, at the Republic National Convention. When Billings learned of the shortage of computers available to local students, he included the Virgin Islands in an ongoing program in Provo, locale of a large number of computer and software development companies, characterized by Bornn as "a little Silicon Valley."
In the Virgin Islands, for example, both the public and the university library systems have long been affiliated with a Provo firm that provides integrated library systems and professional training.
The Provo knowledge-sharing program receives computers from the technology companies, usually top-of-the-line equipment of recent manufacture, which are "scrubbed" and reconditioned in vocational training centers in Provo's schools and a prison.
The computers are then given to schools, and now the Virgin Islands has become a recipient in the program, said a release from Leon Powell, vice president of the St. Thomas/ St. John/ Water Island Republican Party.
"It was a long road," said Bornn, "from the conversation at the convention through a trailerload of computers shipped courtesy of Tropical Shipping, and distributed and connected for the students by a number of local residents.
"The tenacity of Molly Mills and the technical abilities of Peter DeBlanc," said Bornn, "were absolutely vital to making the gift a reality." Mills is a teacher at Ivanna Eudora Kean High School, and DeBlanc, a technology businessman, is well-known for establishing V.I. FreeNet in early Internet days. DeBlanc spearheaded the technical work to ensure that the gift computers work compatibly with the schools' present equipment.
Others who made important contributions include Jonathan Bartsch, Ron Sherwood, Bornn, V.I. Christian Ministries and St. Thomas Rotary II.
A corollary to the gift is that a link between Virgin Islands students and Provo students will establish a penpal network. A website in Utah is planned.
