WHAT: Refurbished personal computers will be presented as donations to approximately 130 families of students of Our Lady of the Westside School in Chicago’s Lawndale community. The computers were donated by the Big Shoulders Fund, a non-profit organization that supports inner-city Catholic schools in Chicago through scholarships, special education programs and operating grants; Charles Shaw, the school’s Big Shoulders Fund patron; and Computers For Schools, an organization that refurbishes computers and distributes them to schools.

The computers will be presented to families at an event Saturday, October 18, at
1 p.m. at the Homan Square Community Center. It will be the first time many of the families have owned a personal computer.

WHO: Barbara Westrick, principal, Our Lady of the Westside;
Charles Shaw, president, Homan Square Community Center Foundation;
Willie Cade, president, Computers For Schools;
Tom Zbierski, associate director/school liaison, Big Shoulders Fund.

WHEN: Saturday, October 18, 2003
1 p.m.

WHERE: Homan Square Community Center
3517 W. Arthington, Chicago

VISUALS: Parents will arrive at the Homan Square Community Center to pick up their computer. Each family will receive two boxes: one with the hard drive unit, the other with the monitor, keyboard and mouse. The 260 large boxes will be stacked in the community center’s lobby. Parents will arrive at the community center’s lobby to receive their “gift” and media are invited to interview parents and school and community officials about the program to provide approximately 130 Lawndale community residents with home computers.