By MICHAEL J. BROOKS

Special to the Reporter

INDIAN SPRINGS VILLAGE – Dr. Dale Elliott began the cardiology program at Shelby Baptist Hospital in 1984 and worked there for 30 years before his retirement.

“I took care of people for a long time and I believe you need to keep on taking care of others in retirement in order to stay alive!” he said with a laugh.

Elliott relinquished the presidency of the Indian Springs Kiwanis Club on Oct. 2 to a new president, Keith McKendall, but not before he envisioned another program to take care of others.

“We looked for a service project this year and went to Dr. Kristi Sayers at Oak Mountain High School for ideas,” he said. “We discovered that schools used to provide textbooks, but now much is done with the Google Chromebook computer. Local city schools supply these, but Oak Mountain is the largest system in our county, and the only one not in the city limits of a city providing assistance.”

Elliott said he learned about 200 students at the school had limited access to computers.

“This means students have to share with two or three others during the day, and that they didn’t have a computer to take home to do homework and prepare for tests,” he said. “This impacts academic progress, so a number of them weren’t able to excel. We wanted to correct the situation.”

Elliott said the purpose of Kiwanis is to support the welfare of children, so the club agreed to sponsor a computer drive. Kiwanians partnered with the Shelby County Schools Education Foundation as the recipient of donations. A fringe benefit is that gifts through this group are tax-deductible.

“We determined to raise funds for 200 computers,” Elliott said. “But then we discovered students in the same predicament in the Oak Mountain elementary and middle schools. Now we want to purchase 325 computers at about $300 each. Our goal is $100,000.”

Elliott said the Indian Springs city council voted this week to donate $5,000 and the  Alabama Kiwanis Foundation approved a $4,000 grant this week as well.

“We’re on our way, but we need a lot of help to make this project happen and help our children,” he said.

The Oak Mountain High School PTO, SGA and Key Club have joined in this effort, too, according to Sayers.

For more information, visit the website, ShelbyEdFoundation.org and click the icon, “Chromebooks for Eagles.”