For Thursday, January 13, 1999 Drummer Column, Gibbs, 746 words

They came, we built it

Last Friday night my students and I stayed late at school. We waited for the wrestlers to finish practice in the cafeteria, then we moved in with our heavy equipment. Within a few hours we had turned the building into a computer assembly center with rows of workstations and stacks of unopened boxes. We were preparing for Saturday -- The Big Day.
Brian Duquette, graduate man-of-all-trades, ran copper wire over the tops of three rows of tables, taped it across the floor with tri-colored caution tape, rolled it out the door to an eight-foot copper grounding rod, and pounded that rod seven feet into the ground.
Benician Ron West came with his truck, and along with Ron Wheat's truck we moved four loads of supplies across campus.
Computer repair students Jose Ramos and Richard Tom laid out in sequence all the parts it takes to build a computer from scratch, times 50. We set up 25 workstations with a screwdriver, two Dixie cups, and an ESD strap (electrostatic discharge) each. I wrote out colored diagrams and steps on a flip chart. My wife drove to Costco for muffins, cookies, and sodas. We rehearsed everyone's role as tech supporter one more time. At night's end, Teacher Maggie Olson offered to ground a few pounds of fresh coffee and lock up.
The next morning 50 teachers came in and built 50 computers. Now they get to keep them in their classrooms. Teachers volunteered to do this. They could have waited an extra week and got one readymade, but they wanted to build their own. What a gas. Like clockwork we moved thanks to so many people.
Early that Saturday morning altruistic teacher Ron Wheat came in first, turned the heat on, and fired up the coffee. I came in next with my crew of student volunteers from computer repair class and journalism: Dylan Thomas, Ryan Gandy, Ashley Jackson, Jason Jeffries, Lauren Lamet, Dave Maggart, Hector Quiroz, Damond Randolph, Tal Sansani, Gundeep Sethi, Matt Shaffer, Ed Shamieh, Jonathan Trampenau, Laura Lopez, Emily Flores, Michael Fewins, Jose and Richard.
We got first dibs on the muffins, then rehearsed everyone's role as a tech supporter one more time. The students were about to become teachers, and vice versa.
By 9 o'clock the first shift of 25 teachers…eh, students…had arrived. They adjusted to their new roles with coffee and muffins and took their places behind empty cases. From here, we built together, screw by screw, with a little music in the background. The student teachers roamed up and down the aisles helping teacher students with clear instructions from me not to do any of the actual work; the teenagers could only clarify and point.
By noon the computers were finished, right on time, and the adults brought their projects up for testing at the big desk. Teens ran the test monitors and gave out the passing grades when a successful boot sequence appeared on the screens. Teachers put their working machines back in their boxes, wrote their names on them, and gave them back to us to install the software later this week.
Other people came by throughout the day to show support: The good Superintendent Joanne Haukland and her husband, Dale, stayed a long time, talking to students and teachers; Principal Bob Palous and his wife, Terri, came early to cheer us on; teacher Doug Houser, a bit of a computer whiz himself, dropped in to lend a hand; spouses came to assist their mates; concerned Benicians like Jim and Nancy Noack and Shelly Dupuis stopped by and thanked the students for their hard work. Shelly brought her camera and took some great photos.
At noon the next shift arrived and we started all over again. We were done by 3 p. m., right on time, one more time. By 3:30 my students had the empty boxes cleared away, the food stored, the copper recoiled, the tables up, and the cafeteria looked like we'd never been there.
Bada-boom, bada-bing.
What you're reading about here is a living example of what can happen when a community pulls together and shows a common interest in providing the tools and the skills needed to raise its children to compete in an aggressive technical world full of complex expectations and long sentences.
If everyone plugged in just one little computer, what a bright world this would be.
2000 thanks to everyone.