CLICK

    Carlisle Linking Information Communications and Knowledge

The MIRA teams were spread out all over south central and southwest Iowa. Some of these counties gained population while others lost. I headed first for Carlisle, a neat small town that is rapidly becoming a bedroom community for Des Moines but feels much like a town that is far from the big city. However, they did have a small housing development to meet some of the demand by Des Moines workers. I stopped at the public library where the clerk knew the people I was coming to see and directed me up the street to the school district administration office. Ethel Lee introduced me to Dan Crum. Both had been very active on the MIRA team from Carlisle. Others included the city manager, some retired people and a few young people. As in other small towns, there was so much for the high school student to choose from, sustained participation by the high school students did not happen. Dan worked as the administrative assistant to the superintendent, but he began as a custodian without much education, and in the early 1980's bought a used IBM-XT, gradually taught himself computer skills and worked his way into better paying jobs. He had hoped the MIRA training would be more about technology. Ethel accepted that it was more about working together, though her group found it difficult to make all the all-day training sessions. They had joined nearby Norwalk in order to have the required number of people at all the sessions. At the fifth session, the Carlisle team came up with the project acronym: CLICK: Carlisle Linking Information Communications and Knowledge. When the $15,000 was split with Norwalk, Carlisle began planning how best to reach their goals.

Some of their money was used for a public access computer, printer, and scanner in the public library, and scanners for the school and city hall. Using many different sources they assembled a suite of spiral-bound manuals to accompany the four series of courses that they sponsored with the rest of the money. Besides four different pamphlets, they used the school "Communigram" to publicize the topics covered in each session. By charging a nominal fee (less that the adult school charged), they were able to stretch the MIRA funds and extend the project for some months. The instructors were paid $20 an hour, and they used the lab at school. At this time, the Internet was fairly new for many of the people. Dan gave one course and introduced it to a mix of older people, teachers, and other working adults. The classes, which ran from April 1999 until Februrary 2000, had ten to fifteen students. A total of 288 were trained, the oldest being 80 and the youngest 20. They had to turn people away because they were popular, low cost, and close to home. A city web page was set up by Ethel's adult son, David. He is still maintaining it.

After the Kellogg money ran out, they tried offering other courses at a higher fee, but they were not successful. Most of the work had fallen on Dan and Ethel, and they decided it was time to attend to other projects. In many small towns the same people are involved in all the civic activities. With a new mayor and plans for a bike trail on an old railroad right-of-way, Dan and Ethel will be volunteering once again.