Running with the Internet

By LAURIE WILLIS, Staff Writer

     DURHAM -- After spending several minutes on a computer Friday searching for a Nickelodeon site on the Internet, Aushinea Royster, 10, wasted no time showing off the characters from the popular cartoon, "Rugrats."
     That she was even working on a computer outside of school is a big deal. The fifth-grader doesn't have access to a computer -- unless you count the one she uses at Lakewood Elementary.
     Now, thanks to Darrell Green, a cornerback for the NFL's Washington Redskins, Aushinea, her friend Athaiah Shuler and other children in the Cornwallis public housing community will have daily access to computers.
     And the Internet.
     "I've been on computers before, but never with famous people," Jermaine Clark, 11, said Friday, minutes after meeting Green. "But I've never been on the Internet before."
     Jermaine, a sixth-grader at Rogers-Herr Middle School, said he's going to take advantage of the computers at the King's Park Life Center in the Cornwallis housing community.
     "I want to learn more about football and basically about how to run your own business and stuff," Jermaine said.
     Green, who has played with the Redskins for 15 years, didn't want to be praised Friday for donating the 10 computers.
     "To whom much is given, much is required," he said in a preacher-like tone at a news conference at the center. "I need to carry out my portion, and my portion is more than running up and down that football field. You don't owe Darrell Green anything. Darrell Green has a responsibility of his own."
     Green, who grew up in public housing and is from Houston, said he was on his way home one night when tears started streaming down his face.
     "From that point on, I said, 'No more Mr. Celebrity guy. I'm going to make an effect,' " Green said in an interview. "I didn't know what that effect was, but I started the Darrell Green Foundation."
     Through his foundation, Green began sponsoring "Fun Days In The Park," where he went into public housing complexes and provided a day of fun for residents, including free food and clothes. That was about 10 years ago.
     Later, Green said he realized he needed to bring academics, as well as morals, into the support he was lending the communities.
     "We needed to train them morally, teach them integrity, love, respect and faithfulness," he said. "That's when I came up with the idea of the learning center."
     Green operates a learning center in Washington. He told the children at Cornwallis on Friday that eventually he will bring some of the kids who attend his center to Durham, so the groups can meet.
     Cheryl Lide, program director of King's Park Life Center, said the computers Green donated were set up about two weeks ago and complement some computers that Duke University donated last fall. Duke put together the system for the computers Green donated, and GTE Network Services is donating free Internet access. EasyWeb Inc., a local minority-owned business, was instrumental in getting GTE involved.
     "This is a continuation of some of the work we've done with the Durham Housing Authority," said Steve Toler of GTE. "We want the information age to be inclusive, and we realize that's not going to happen by its own devices."
     Cecil J. Hollar Jr., vice president of marketing for EasyWeb, said he hopes the cooperative efforts to bring the computers to the Cornwallis community will "make other businesses want to get involved."
     Lide couldn't say enough about the computers and the difference they can make in the lives of Cornwallis residents.
     "A lot of them don't have reference materials at home, or other resources," she said. "The Web has everything at your fingertips."
     A fact that wasn't lost on Athaiah, who said she's going to use the new computers when doing her homework.
    

Laurie Willis can be reached at 829-8949 or lwillis@nando.com