In Wray, Colorado, team members ran ads in the local newspaper and on radio and through flyers distributed throughout the community, challenging citizens to submit ideas for "technology-based ideas that were community-oriented and self-sustaining." A cash prize was offered for the best project suggestion, and it will be split between two "co-winners," one of them a middle school student and the other a member of the Wray MIRA team. Team members gave the MIRA workshops credit for helping them to build relationships and gather ideas that made their project identification phase successful.

The team has developed a detailed project time, starting with the solicitation of project ideas in February and ending in August with a project evaluation work session. The team is meeting monthly to monitor use of the multimedia work station. At the August meeting, data on recorded usage of the work station will be re viewed, along with user comments that are recorded on user logs at the site. The team will continue to monitor use of the work station throughout the life of the project, which is estimated at five to six years, based on the projected life of the hardware. Matching funds are being sought to support equipment maintenance and to continue publicizing availability of the work station for community users.

Project Close Up: Grant

The approach taken by the Grant, Nebraska, team is notable for its departure from the customary route taken by other Lost Treasures teams. Rather than buying equipment and setting up a computer station for community use and Internet access, Grant is investing its dollars in a search for much larger support for a distance learning center, a telemedicine capability, and telecommunications to support community and economic development.

Grant funds are being spent on summer student help to conduct research by topic area to help define needs and opportunities that will be included in a grant request to be written by a professional grant writer also paid with MIRA dollars. The research topic areas include:

• Tele-medicine
• Tele-radiography Distance learning
• High school curriculum Available phone lines, fiber optics and T lines.
• Web pages and on-line businesses Business of students as technology consultants

The long distance learning center at the school is estimated to cost as much as $60,000 in equipment, plus another $8,000 In phone line charges. Grant support will be sought for the equipment, and the school board is being approached about supporting the annual telephone line charges. The long distance learning center would help students expand access to more courses at the high school level and provide an opportunity to gain college credit before they graduate from Grant High School. The center would also be available to nursing staff at the local hospital for continuing professional education.

To investigate the telemedicine and teleradiography opportunities that might be provided, several meetings have been held involving such parties as the Great Plains Regional Medical Center, located in North Platte, a town of about 23,000 some 70 miles away that serves as a regional center for radiography services for a dozen rural communities in the area; the Regional West Hospital in Scottsbluff. 120 miles away, which provides vascular surgical specialties; Nebraska Educational Telecommunications, which provides statewide distance learning services from its nationally known ETV center in Lincoln, the state capital; Great Plains Communications, local provider of telephone services, and Senora. a software company from Longmont, Colorado, that specializes in transmission of digital radiography information.

The grant request, totaling $183,000, was submitted in early July to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Matching funds of $55,000, most from the hospital foundation in North Platte, have been pledged toward the project. The proposal seeks support for distance learning, exchange of patient information, transmission of laboratory data and x-rays, and diagnosis from regional medical specialists as far away as Denver.

To support economic development, the MIRA team is working with the Community Development Committee of the Grant Chamber of Commerce. One idea is to survey the community to help determine telecommunications needs and opportunities that would support business creation or expansion.

Unique Opportunity Ignored

A unique opportunity to earn college credit for participation in MIRA and some additional work was offered through the Regional Programs Office of Chadron State College, Adults could earn three credits in business administration, vocational education, education or sociology. High school students could register for the sociology credits with approval of their parents and their school. The instructor, Ed Nelson, is a MIRA trainer that the Lost Treasures Cluster used on two occasions. A former Chadron State College president, Nelson is a well-known facilitator of small town community development sessions throughout western Nebraska.

Students had to agree to attend all workshops, maintain a notebook with handouts and participant notes, develop three questions with answers for each workshop to cover high points of workshop content, keep a diary of impressions of each workshop session and write a short paper describing their experiences with the project. Nelson was to meet with all of the enrollees at the end of the project to collect papers, review notebooks, and administer a final examination. However, no one took advantage of the opportunity for college credit.