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Helping students compute

The community newsmagazine donates $23,000 to an elementary school to upgrade technology laboratory equipment.

By STEPHANIE HAYES
Published November 26, 2006

WESTCHASE - Westchase Elementary is getting an upgrade, thanks to a hefty donation from the community's newsmagazine.

World of Westchase, a glossy magazine distributed each month in the community, is donating $23,000 to the school to buy 22 new personal computers for the technology lab.

Right now, the lab computers aren't compatible with classroom computers, making it difficult for students to transfer work from one room to another.

"We are very excited," said Westchase principal Joyce Wieland. "We were surprised."

Wieland said the Hillsborough County School District recently refreshed her classrooms with new Windows computers, but labs weren't included.

"The World of Westchase asked what they could do," she said.

About half of the money was raised at the magazine's annual 5K race, the Great West Chase, which was in October. This year, the race drew about 400 participants.

In the past, the magazine has made smaller donations to schools and libraries. But this year, the board of directors saw an obvious need at the school.

"We've had a very good year and we decided we could actually do something pretty neat," said World of Westchase publisher and managing editor Chris Barrett. "These donations are possible because of our generous contributors, our writers and our volunteers."

World of Westchase subsists solely on advertising revenues and has a policy of donating excess money back to the community.

The magazine also donated $5,000 to Lowry Elementary, $2,000 to Alonso High and $3,660 to Davidsen Middle.

Stephanie Hayes can be reached at shayes@sptimes.com or (813) 269-5303.

[Last modified November 25, 2006, 10:34:10]