Red Clay Dedicates Computer Lab at Highlands School

Red Clay Education Foundation (RCEF) and Red Clay Consolidated School District officials gathered Monday, December 10, 2007 to dedicate the Hamilton-Wolf Computer Lab at Highlands Elementary School in Wilmington.

The $25,000 lab was made possible through a donation to the school from Milton and Mary Wolf, the former owners of two Wilmington retail stores; Anna Hamilton, whose daughter, Amy, attends the school, and Delmarva Power.

 
"The Wolfs have a lifelong love of children, and are extremely generous and helpful people,’’ said Hamilton, a new member of the RCEF.

During the brief ceremony, student Aliana Maldonado read her letter of thanks, one of many hanging on walls throughout the school. "Thank you for the computers,’’ she read. "I also want to say that the old computers were very slow. I did not like them at all, they got on Miss [Stella] Evans nerves every time she tried to get on the internet.’’

Principal Robert Farr called the donors "angels in everyday clothes’’ and said the new lab, which contains 32 new computers,  has made a tremendous difference at the school.

Hamilton said she looked to help the school after the May 2007 operating tax referendum did not pass and the school would not be getting new computers. "I was sort of distressed by that, I took a look at the computers and said, "Wow, these are old!’’ she told the crowd.

Hamilton approached local residents and companies for donations and learned that she and others could make a tax deductible donation to the school through the RCEF, which was founded in September 2006.

"I wanted to do this to create a better learning opportunity for the children at Highland's Elementary - but also to show that something like this can be done. Problems do not have to sit, unsolved. It is possible to ask for, and get, significant funds to help our schools,’’ said Hamilton.

"This computer lab is proof that you can ask, and get, the things we need for our children's education. I am grateful for the opportunity to help.’’

Ralph Kuebler, president of the RCEF, said "This was exactly why the Red Clay Education Foundation was created: to help the children.’’

Click here to view thank you letters written by the students.