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Last spring I was the coach of a Sally Ride (first female USA astronaut) Toy Challenge contest team from the Culver City Middle School. (Sally Ride encourages middle school students to study math and science).

The S.R. Toy Challenge, a national contest with strong engineering focus, added a new rule to 2007 in that all teams needed to raise funds from the community.

Every state was represented, and travel expenses to the Toy Challenge finals, held in San Diego for the West Coast, and Raleigh, N.C. on the East Coast, needed to be a team component.

Our team, Teamkomit, created a programmable musical instrument ("myTunes") that withstood three rounds of engineering elimination. We were invited to the Finals in San Diego.

All of the Culver City newspapers covered our progress and announced to the community that Teamkomit was in need of corporate sponsorship.

The day the story was carried in the news, Mehaul O'Leary called the number in the paper (my home number) and offered to help the team.

We chatted for awhile.

I explained what the Sally Ride Toy Challenge was. I will always remember Mr. O'Leary's next sentence: “Would $500 do you any good?”

I was flabbergasted that someone I did not know would, out of the blue, support an extracurricular Culver City Middle School event to help math and engineering students.

He then said, “I am writing the check now. Come by and pick it up at your leisure.”

Mehaul O’Leary’s generous donation allowed our team to focus on our engineering problems and solutions. Middle School Teamkomit members were astonished that Mr. O’Leary (and others) had such community spirit. Mr. O'Leary has Culver City interests at heart.

As I have watched the Culver City City Council candidates talk about their vision of Culver City, I have reflected upon Mr. O’Leary’s past generosity and his commitment to helping Culver City students.

I have also discovered that he has been an active participant in helping dozens of Culver City endeavors. Mr. Mehaul O’Leary has my endorsement and my vote for Culver City City Council. I would hope that you, too, would see the value of having such a man of vision and character on our City Council.

Web sites
http://www.sallyridescience.com/toychallenge/

Teamkomit Culver City Middle School students creating myTunes.
http://www.youtube.com (search on teamkomit. 8 minute video )