Sharing my thanks… PCs for my primary school

Few years ago, the 3rd graders (at the time) from my primary school in Petinos (my village) reached out to me for a conversation/interview over Skype. I started following their progress and even visited them at the school on occassions.

When I was in primary school, we didn’t have any computers. I didn’t get exposed to home computers until I went to high school and only because of my parents and my love for arcade games (that’s a story for another time). It seemed that the situation didn’t really improve over the years even though there are more students at the school now. So I promised the 3rd graders that I would do my best to fix the situation.

 

(from my previous visit)

The same kids are now in the 6th grade and the school has PCs, laptops, tablets, and networking infrastructure to help both the teachers and the students.

Greece is in need of investments. I trully believe that there is no better investment than education and the young generation.

Many thanks to Microsoft for matching my first of the two gifts (the process started last year) and to the Hellenic Cultural Center, through their Adopt a Greek School program, who helped me coordinate the donation here in the US and the transfer of the funds to Greece so that all the computer equipment could be purchased. Special thanks to Prof. Ioannis Kakadiaris and his daughter for making it happen. My biggest thanks goes to the school’s principal, Koula Tsiftsidou, for the wonderful work that she’s doing at the Petinos primary school 🙂

In my recent trip to Greece I got to visit the school and the kids again. They honored me by naming their small computer class after me. I was very touched.

(photo credit www.xanthipress.gr)

In the local news (in Greek)

• Local TV channel report
• www.xanthipress.gr article
• www.empros.gr article