WELCOME TO.... clikkids.org

THE HISTORY OF CLIK'S ELEVEN YEARS

Ross Watches Glenn do Computer Artwork in the Conference Room

CLIK opened at Ronald McDonald House at Stanford on May 1, 1993, following months of preparation and intensive training of volunteers. Ross Moran, a 16 year old cystic fibrosis patient, inspired the drive to bring computers into the House for the use of very ill children. He knew how much it had meant to him to have computer access during his many hospitalizations and believed other sick youngsters, although less technologically savvy than he, would be just as happy to learn new skills and think of things other than their illnesses. Teamed with Randy Haykin from Apple Computer, Ross arranged for our first big donation - 4 Macintosh computers with CD-Rom drives.

We began with more volunteers than children, no place to keep the computers except in rooms only open when adults were present, and no clear idea where we were headed. Internet access wasn't even an option. Silicon Valley is a great place to be if one is interested in computers, but much effort still had to be expended; people needed to be informed if they were to donate equipment, expertise, or time. We quickly learned to beg, to write letters to software companies, to attend exhibitions like MacWorld with printouts about our program, and to seek companies/individuals from whom we might acquire extra computers which could be sent home with our children. We who had never seen software outside of that used in the office delighted in the vast variety of programs for kids.They weren't all good and we couldn't always predict what our kids would like, but we guessed correctly more often than not. We even became involved with companies that let our kids test and keep, new software.

May, 2007 marks the beginning of CLIK's fifteenth year. During those years, dozens of computers have been sent home with children and CLIK now has 8 online computers, both PCs and Macs, set up with printers, cameras, and scanners in the large CLIK room in the Maya Wing. An online desktop computer is available 24/7 in the Library, and 4 computers are in the CLIK Room in the Garden Immune Wing for bone marrow transplant patients and their families. Laptops are made available to those children whose immune systems are too compromised to permit them to use the CLIK rooms. CLIK volunteers work weekly 2 hour shifts. As the house has expanded, the demands have become greater and the problems more complex, but the children's enjoyment more than compensates for all the extra time!

Like that of any House, the population varies. Sometimes there are lots of babies or many of the children are in the hospital, and then it is quiet. This is when parents are seen on the machines, sending email, updating Care Pages, and downloading photos. CLIK doesn't meet every child's needs but it has meant a great deal to a great many children. SItting next to a youngster happily playing "Snood" or "Luxor", one "reading" a Living Book like "Just Grandma and Me"with his grandmother, or another child proudly printing his own "masterpiece", one sees enough smiles, watches enough eager grins, and hears enough giggles to know that this works. The mom or dad busily sending off email with photos attached to worried friends and relatives would be quick to agree. Ross would be proud to see that 15 years after he envisioned CLIK, it is still thriving and helping so many ill children and their families.