Chicago attorney Allison Satyr uses her Pay It Forward Challenge money to reward teenagers working to do well in school. The Inner City Education Program (ICE) provides scholarships for low-income high school students who play ice hockey. Allison learns that four students sponsored by ICE need computers to keep up with their work.
Figuring out how to buy four laptops for only $1,000 is a challenge. Allison contacts CDW, a computer and technology company, for a discount on computers and is thrilled when they arrange for her to purchase two laptops with her money. CDW then matches the gift by donating two more computers for the teens! Allison raises another $1,000 to help purchase software for the new computers.
As if the computers weren't enough, the surprises keep coming. The Chicago Blackhawks invite Allison to make her presentation at the United Center. The boys initially think they're just taking a tour of the building. When they're presented with their new computers, they are shocked! And the giving continues—Blackhawks player Jim Vladimir chips in another $1,000 to the ICE program on behalf of the team, and the equipment crew gives each boy their choice of two hockey sticks—a value of $1,200!
Allison says she's still on a high from the experience. "I was overwhelmed with emotion just seeing the deep appreciation in the boys' and their parents' faces and knowing that I had been an instrumental part of so much happiness," she says.
Published 01/01/2006
