
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 19, 1995                   TAG: 9501190070
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: LAURA ZIVKOVICH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

`HAVE A HEART' COMPUTER WILL HELP SISTERS

Katie and Amanda McCoy had a surprise waiting for them when they came home from school Wednesday: a computer.

On Jan. 2, Alice McCoy called the toll-free number advertised on CNBC's "Have a Heart" program and explained her daughters' need for a computer to enhance their education.

Katie, 7, and Amanda, 13, were born with Cornelia deLange Syndrome, which causes mild to severe retardation in children. A computer would help the girls learn speech and motor skills, Alice McCoy said.

"Have a Heart" called back asked McCoy to go to WBRA Channel 15 in Roanoke on Jan. 12. "They wanted me to go on TV and tell my story," she said, not knowing then that the show had already found a computer for the girls. In the last segment of the show, taped by live remote, Larry Maccherone and Nick Wood of Comprehensive Computer Services in Christiansburg, promised the girls a computer.

"I thought it would be educational for the kids. Amanda loves to work on it at school," said Alice McCoy.

"Amanda was thrilled," she said. "They gave us a picture of the computer at the show. She held it the whole way home. She was laughing and saying 'I got a computer.'"

The company donated a computer system with an estimated value of between $1,100 and $1,300. "It became more than a gift from CCS," said Sandra Gallagher, CCS project coordinator. Employees also donated a modem, a subscription to a bulletin board and educational software to help the girls with math, spelling and reading. "Everyone really wanted to make it happen for the family, the kids," Gallagher said. Workers installed the system Wednesday in the dining room of the McCoy's Blacksburg home.

"I can't believe this has all happened as fast as it has," said Alice McCoy.

She hopes the girls will use the extra time they usually spend playing with Barbies working, playing and learning on the computer.

The girls will have to share with their brothers: Alman, 12, and eventually, Jackie, 1.

by CNB