How the Raymond Firehouse School Started

The Raymond Firehouse School is located in Raymond, Maine, a sleepy little town in a scenic part of the state of Maine. Hardly anything big ever happens in Raymond, Maine, except for the big herd of moose that once walked down Main Street on a Tuesday afternoon without any prior warning last November.

The Raymond Firehouse School just sort of happened. Nobody planned it. Nobody sat down and said, "Hey, why don't we start a firehouse school." Nobody got together with a few other people and discussed what would be the best way to run the school. Nobody organized fund raising events to kick off the grand opening of the school.

The school never had any grand opening. In fact, nobody in town actually remembers when the school started. It just started up without any big fuss or fanfare.

When we asked the teachers at the Raymond Firehouse School how the school began, most of them say that the trouble really started when firefighter Betsy Ericsen brought her computer to work one day. While waiting around for emergency calls to come in, Betsy used to play around with her computer. She taught herself how to use about a dozen different programs.

One day, Adam Simon, a third grader at the Raymond Elementary School, was walking by the firehouse on his way home. Adam liked to stop by the firehouse to visit with the firefighters since they always seemed to enjoy having visitors stop by.

When Adam saw Betsy Ericsen's computer, he called out, "Oh, can you show me how to do some things on your computer? At our school we have computer class three times a week, and I already know how to use about four different programs."

Betsy smiled and said, "Sure, you're welcome to use my computer for a little while. I don't have too many games or anything, but you can type a short story using my word processor, if you like."

Adam didn't know how to type very fast, so he asked if Betsy could type a story that he dictated to her. Within ten minutes Betsy had typed up the first three paragraphs of a story. Within fifteen minutes, they were already reaching the end of the story. Betsy didn't have her printer with her at the firehouse, but she promised she'd print out the story using the printer she had at home. Adam thanked her, and said he'd stop by again in a few days to pick up the story. But before Adam left to go home, Betsy asked him what his favorite software was.

As he was walking out the firehouse, Adam yelled back over his shoulder, "My favorite software is called Number Munchers. It's a fun math game where you try to eat the right numbers while avoiding the nasty troggle creatures."

When Betsy got home that night she started thinking about how nice it might be to have students stop by the firehouse after school to use some computers. She called up her friend John Nicodemus, who taught math at the junior high school. John was always enthusiastic about how computers can help kids learn. So when he heard about Betsy's idea, he told her he would see if he could find some people to donate older computers to the firehouse.

John was a member of a computer user group that had an electronic bulletin board. People could call the bulletin board using their computers and a modem. Then they could leave messages for one another.

That night John called the user group's bulletin board and left the following message:

Subject: Computers
From: John Nicodemus
To: All

"I got a phone call this afternoon from Betsy Ericsen, who works as a firefighter downtown. Betsy told me about how she'd like to set up some computers for kids to use after school. She already has one computer that she's using with kids.

Anybody out there have an older computer they might be able to donate to the firehouse? It doesn't have to be fancy or anything. Even a green, monochrome screen would be fine.

If you know anybody who has a computer that they might be able to donate, you can call Betsy at her home phone: 555-1313."

After John posted this message on the bulletin board, nothing happened for two weeks. Betsy got a little discouraged. Surely there were some people in the community who might have an older computer they could donate to the firehouse.

Well, about three months went by and nobody called about donating a computer to the firehouse. Then one day, in the middle of a lazy afternoon, the phone rang.

"Hi, is Betsy there?"

"Yes, this is Betsy."

"Hi Betsy. My name is Alexandra Kay. I work for the phone company.

Yesterday I saw a message on the user group bulletin board that said you're looking for someone to donate a computer to use with kids at the firehouse."

"Yes," said Betsy cautiously. "Do you have a computer you can donate." "No, ma'am, I'm sorry. I don't have one computer to donate. But I could donate five old Macintosh computers."

"Five computers?" asked Betsy in amazement. "Are they all in working order?" she added. "Well, four of them are in working order. The fifth one is missing a keyboard card." "Oh, that's not a big problem. I could buy one of those from a mail order company," replied Betsy.

"You wouldn't happen to have any software to go with the computers," Betsy asked politely. "No, I'm afraid I don't."

"Well, we could always find some public domain software for the kids to use."

So ten days later the five Macintosh computers were set up in the firehouse. Adam was pleased to find out that his favorite program, Number Munchers, was installed on one of the computers. Over the next few months Betsy Ericsen continued to teach the kids who stopped by after school. And she continued to show the other firefighters how to use computers. Who would have thought that a firehouse school could have started up this way? Looking back, it all seems a little bit magical. But everything interesting always has a touch of magic in it anyway, don't you think? 

by Phil Shapiro

A Twinkle in the dark

Once there were no stars, no moon, no sun - not even an EARTH. 
There was not even a twinkle of light. All was dark - so dark you 
could almost FEEL it, except there was nothing to FEEL either. 
Because nothing was out there. All was empty space - SO empty that 
there was not one thing that could bump into another thing. So 
empty that not even one SOUND could be heard, not even a whisper. 
Because no one was out there...except GOD. And THAT'S when it all 
began - a long, LONG time ago. 

The Bible tells us, "In the beginning God created the heaven and 
the earth," and this is exactly how He did it. 

The first sound that was ever heard was when God opened his mouth 
on that first day and said, "LET THERE BE LIGHT." As soon as He 
spoke those words, there was a powerfully bright flash and all the 
darkness fled away into a corner. God saw how good it was. It must 
have made Him VERY happy...but not happy enough. Because then He 
decided to separate the light from the darkness, by calling the 
light "day" and the darkness "night." And so ended the first day. 

He must have known how difficult it would have been to rest if it 
were bright ALL the time, so he fixed it so it would be dark just 
PART of the time - at nighttime - so we could find it easier to 
sleep. 

 **But God wasn't finished yet.**

The second day, God said, "Let there be a sky," and, oh, how 
BEAUTIFUL it was! There was day and there was night, and now there 
was a beautiful blue sky. And still God wasn't done. Do you know 
how come? Because everywhere you looked there was nothing but 
water. The day, and the night, and the sky, and the water were so 
BEAUTIFUL... 

 **But God wanted MORE.**

So, on the third day, the Bible says God gathered the water 
together in one place. He said to the oceans, "You stay here." And 
you know what? They obeyed Him! And to the rivers, He said, "You 
belong over there." And they listened, too. And to the lakes, "You 
stay in this place." And they obeyed Him, too. 

Can you imagine what would happen if they DIDN'T obey him? Why 
there would be utter CHAOS! Things would be floating when we'd 
least expect them to and whenever we turned our back, we could be 
run over by a wave. I'm so glad they 
LISTENED to God, aren't you? 

And God named the dry land "earth" and the water he called "seas." 
So now there was day and there was night, 

 **and there was a beautiful blue sky,** 

  **and there were oceans and rivers and lakes.** 

God saw how good the third day was. It must have made Him VERY 
happy...but not happy enough. Because then he made the grass and 
plants and fruit trees with seeds inside them that could grow MORE 
plants and fruit trees. Some plants and trees He made just to make 
everything look pretty. Others he made so we would have fruits and 
vegetables to eat. 

Most plants grew UP - like apples and pears and corn and broccoli. 
Other plants grew DOWN - like potatoes and turnips and carrots. And 
some plants grew SIDEWAYS - like cucumbers and watermelons and 
squash. And God was VERY pleased with all He did on that third day. 

So now there was day and there was night, and there was a beautiful 
blue sky, and there were oceans and rivers and lakes, and there 
were grass and plants and trees. 

 **But STILL He wasn't finished!**

  **There was yet more work to do!** 

On the fourth day, God said, "Let there be lights in the sky to 
separate the day from the night, and for Winter, Spring Summer, and 
Fall, and for days and years." And you know what? That's exactly 
what happened! Just like God said. 

God made two really BIG lights. The larger one we call the "sun," 
He made to shine in the day and a smaller one we call the "moon," 
He made to shine at night. He also made the stars and put them 
exactly where He wanted them. God put all these beautiful lights in 
the sky to give light to the earth. The sun gives light to the 
earth during the day and the moon and stars give light to the earth 
during the night. 

 **And God saw that it was good.**

So now there was day and there was night, and there was a beautiful 
blue sky, and there were oceans and rivers and lakes, and there 
were grass and plants and trees, and there were the sun, moon and 
stars. 

Next time you see a star twinkle in the night, stop and think about 
this: God put a twinkle in the dark so we would remember how very 
important it is to obey Him just like the stars do. 

by Barbara Wilmerton Haas