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PHOENIX - It was an unusual sort of school fund-raiser. No cupcakes, wavy chocolate bars, or raffle tickets involded. Instead, Gary Trujillo's charm, credibility, connections and a handful of determined friends.
There was a little wining and dining; a couple formal presentations with charts and graphs. And there was the politically hot cause of a severely underfunded public school.
Within a year, the combination produced more that $500,000 to create and endow an 80-computer technology center for the Roosevelt Elementary School District, where several generations of Trujillos have gon to school.
It will open this month inside the renovated Neighborhood House. The 5.000 square foot building was constructed on 1.2 acres at Seventh Street and Southern in 1912. . . (illegible) . . grandchildren of homemakers who once played bridge and clapped politely at dance recitals during the building's early days.
Trujillo is president and chief executive of Southwest Harvard Group, a 5-year-old financial services consulting firm with 400 employees in seven states.
He took on the Roosevelt project for the kids, of whom 17 percent have a computer at home - compared with 41 percent statewide, and 70 percent in Scottsdale.
He did it to raise their foundering standardized test scores andto ensure their parents also had a place to learn about computers and the Internet. But mostly he did it to prove to the rest of the Valley taht south Phoenix residents have the know-how, the power and the motivation to take care of their own.
"It's important that the extended community understands there is not only culture in south Phoenix, but it is rich in love and history," said Trujillo, who never worked on a computer until . . (illegible).. master's degree in business administration.
Two years ago, he organized the Roosevelt Education Foundation with Superintendent John Baracy and a small group of alumni. In December 1994 Trujillo began his crusade for the technology center.
Trujillo credits financier Susan Dresher-Mulzet, a part owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team, for his inspiration. It came in the form of a $25,000 dollar check at an informal dinner with Trujillo and Baracy. "It wasn't the largest contribution," says Trujillo, "but it was the most important for me."
It allowed Trujillo to dream big, and he went on to tap businesses, private foundations, and wealthy families - even Drescher-Mulzet gave more. The first $30,000 Trujillo raised restored the shell of the historic Neighborhood House and equipped the inside for the next century. The next $20,000 will assure the existence of the center for future generations of Roosevelt students, despite school funding or board politics, Trujillo says.
The center will open with half-day programs designed for Roosevelt students. By September it should be open full time for students and adults.
So excited is Trujillo that he threw a party at the Pointe Hilton at South Mountain for 1,000 donors, students and teachers. "We need to take control of our community, "said Trujillo, standing amid ladders and wires inside the Neighborhood House still a little in awe of his dream being built around him. "It's one of the best decisions I ever made."
Arizona Republic, May 8, 1996
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