National Cristina Foundation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The National Cristina Foundation (NCF) is a charitable organization founded by financier Bruce McMahan and Yvette Marrin in 1985. It supplies computers and training to the disabled, the "at risk", and the poor.
[edit] History
NCF started as a small operation - with one Apple IIe computer. In 1983, Bruce McMahan's daughter, Cristina McMahan, a young girl with cerebral palsy, was part of a special education class in the Yonkers Public Schools in Westchester County, New York. Her classmates included children with a range of disabilities from spina bifida, a loss of limbs, to learning disabilities. Many of the children needed adults to act as scribes for them when they wanted to write or draw.
It occurred to Cristina's teacher, Dr. Yvette Marrin, that a computer in the classroom could be a big help to enabling these children to accomplish tasks that other children took for granted.
Marrin held a fundraising picnic, which netted her $100 of the $2500 she needed. However, Cristina's father, D. Bruce McMahan, was intrigued by her idea and donated the rest of the money required to put a computer (the Apple IIe) in her classroom.
The first formal NCF project was in collaboration with the Maryland Rehabilitation Center in 1986. Bruce McMahan jump-started the process by donating 2500 personal computers to the State of Maryland. After this initial effort NCF developed a Re-use Model, which it still uses today.
In 1996 NCF celebrated its tenth anniversary with an award ceremony to recognize two super achievers with disabilities: Harold Russell, Oscar award recipient for his portrayal of a disabled vet in The Best Years of Our Lives, and Vint Cerf, one of the creators of the Internet, for their contributions to improving the lives of people with disabilities.
