Macon Magazine

Beautiful Cemetery Vistas, Cremation Areas and Memorials Generations of Macon families have selected Riverside Cemetery as the final resting place for their loved ones. Thinking about cremation? We have many options. Let me help you make the best decisions for you and your family. Ask about our 5% discount There are 21 Bibb County schools - each with at least 75 percent of its students eligible for free lunch - participating in the pilot. The program allows families enrolled in the free-lunch program to buy a computer for $150 and get Internet access from Cox for $9.95 per month for the next two years. The local library system also will have computer literacy opportunities that are available for everyone, Blake said. "It's also training," Murphey said. "It's having access to hardware and software … bringing Internet service into someone's home isn't necessarily considered success if the household isn't trained on how to best use it and use it correctly. We're looking for successful adoption of this tool within the homes that are not currently Internet users." Information detailing all of the program's eligibility requirements and benefits were sent out to the pilot schools this fall. Mary Robinson is the local program coordinator. She has been talking with principals and attending school meetings to get the word out. "Our goal is to get at least 350 people signed up," Robinson said. "There's a great, great need and a great enthusiasm around this." Families who miss the 60-day pilot or those who don't have children at one of the pilot schools can still participate when the program goes national next year. "The bottom line is it will be available to all schools and all households with free lunch participants starting the first quarter of 2013," Murphey said. The effort is being supported financially by the Knight Foundation, which announced in October it was providing a $3 million grant to support the national program over the next three years. M "We've made a three-year commitment to Connect2Compete," Blake said. "We truly believe that digital access is critical for building strong communities, and strong communities are critical to a strong democracy. The Internet and digital tools are the way so many of us connect these days and get our information, so it's a critical component of building informed and engaged communities." DECEMBER/JANUARY 2013 MACON MAGAZINE I 55

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