CANOGA PARK : Computer Donation Campaign Renewed

For three years, computer salesman Steven Rothman has worked to secure donations of computers for his daughter’s elementary school. The donations trickled in--one or two one year, three the next--until finally Pomelo Drive Elementary School was ready to start its first computer lab.

Then, on Oct. 24, the Canoga Park school was burglarized. A dozen computers, seven of them painstakingly obtained through donations, disappeared.

Now, Rothman is starting from scratch. In a one-man campaign to replace the lost computers, he has sent out 500 faxes to local businesses. Four donors have surfaced, each offering one used computer, he said.

“This technologically advanced world requires that everyone know how to use computers,” said Rothman, whose daughter is in the fourth grade at Pomelo. “If you get 10 or 12 kids on computers, they will learn better.”

Rothman said the 12 computers, including those bought by the district, were in a single room that was to serve as the new lab. The burglars pried a side door with a crowbar.