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Hughes and its employees are working to make Tucson an even better place to live.
Young Minds -- building blocks to the futureHMSC has a 45-year history in Tucson and, therefore, has a vested interest in educating and preparing young people to be the engineers and scientists, the computer experts, and the flexible producers of the future. A talented work force in waiting, so to speak.HMSC sponsors and supports many Tucson-area programs to improve education from the first grade through post graduate school, particularly in technological fields. No matter how entertainingly and understandable scientific and other knowledge is presented, and no matter how wide computers open the world of learning, students have more basic needs. That is why HMSC and other local businesses reach out to children who risk not being able to discover their potential. It does this, in part, by supporting activities such as the Educational Enrichment Foundation (EEF) Special Needs Program. Special Needs helps at-risk children like two in one family who alternated days they went to school because they had only one pair of shoes between them. Through the Tucson Unified School District Clothing Bank, Special Needs provides clothing and personal items such as toiletries to more than 6,000 students each school year. New and used clothing is donated by stores, manufacturers and private individuals. K-Mart donates $150,000 worth of new clothes annually, and EEF pays for its transportation to the Clothing bank. The program includes more than merchandise. Local EEF executive director Lauri Privett maintains that privacy and sensitivity are also important components of the program. The Special Needs program helps children get to school and be open to learning.
Hale, hearty and healthy Maintaining health or treating illness can be a prohibitively expensive proposition in today's economy. HMSC and many of its employees have long histories of augmenting community health services in many ways, both small and grand. No effort is insignificant or unappreciated; all are vital to the whole - from the sad-faced clown who brings the gift of laughter to patients in a nursing home, or a group of children who overcome physical disabilities as they learn to bring enjoyment to others, to HMSC's financial contributions to several major health care initiatives in the community. The best medicine often doesn't come in the form of immunizations or prescriptions. When Digger the Clown visits residents in local nursing homes, HMSC graphic artist Tim Zahn always goes along. You see, they share the same body. Digger is Zahn's young person persona: "Everybody has a kid in them," Zahn says, "and Digger is mine."
Kids love to perform, too "Shall we dance?" Student performer Helen Calley learns from Third Street Kids director, Marsha Berger, that there's more to dance than footwork. Digger is not the only example of the truth behind the adage, "laughter is the best medicine." Laughter erupts at classes where the Third Street Kids learn to make others smile. The Third Street Kids is a performing arts company primarily for children with disabilities. HMSC supports these worthy goals and has not only given Third Street Kids a cash contribution, it has brought the arts company to the attention of a wider audience by including it in HMSC's 1996 Making a Difference advertising campaign.
Hoping to perform a miracleIn addition to supporting treatment, HMSC supports research as demonstrated by its contribution to the University of Arizona Cancer Center. The primary goal of the Cancer Center is to overcome cancer and eliminate it as a major disease of humankind.Hughes was an early supporter of the 1976 campaign to build the center's existing facility, which is one of the UA college of Medicine Centers of Excellence and one of 27 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers. Now, HMSC is supporting the center's latest campaign to add 30 research laboratories to its facility, contributing a little over half toward one of those 30 high-tech research, state-of-the-art labs. Ray Day, who worked on the capital fund campaign under David Wright, chair, says HMSC's contribution "helped us to finish up the campaign, and allowed us to start actual building." The new labs should be complete early in 1996, 30 strides closer to the goal of a cancer-free generation.
San Xavier gets a facelift Mexican baroque, interior art of San Xavier mission If you drive to work at HMSC's Airport site along I-19 or South Old Nogales Highway, you can catch a glimpse of the "White Dove of the Desert," illuminated by the morning sun, rising from the desert floor southwest of Tucson. The mission of San Xavier del Bac. HMSC recently joined other corporate and private contributors to help finance the six-year restoration and preservation project of the mission that began in 1991.
Last in the chain of Kino missions The current project is the first extensive effort to restore the interior decoration--recapturing priceless art from 200 years of deterioration and decay. It is also the first project to simultaneously train and employ Tohono O'odham apprentices as skilled conservators who will be caretakers responsible for preserving the mission's art treasures beyond 1997. Contributions from HMSC and many others in the community have meant that "the treasure too rich to lose," the Mission San Xavier del Bac, will, indeed, not be lost. Arts + Education = Enlightened Children While HMSC is known nationwide as one of the defense industry's prime missile manufacturers, locally the company is being recognized for stimulating the city's youth through arts and education and significantly contributing to Tucson's cultural growth. Historically, HMSC has recognized the importance of the arts and has actively embraced the arts and art education through its contributions. Since 1988, HMSC has donated more than a quarter of a million dollars to local dance, musical and theatrical groups, and museums in Tucson. So that all children in Tucson can experience the arts, HMSC recently gave the Tucson Children's Museum a grant that will enable it to admit children free one Sunday each month. Unlike most museums, this museum offers hands-on activities for its patrons to incite their interest in art. The arts in Tucson span a variety of interests. The theater, symphonies, dance companies and museums motivate our youth, provide the city with great entertainment, and, equally important, attract growing businesses and valuable citizens. From one small acorn... HMSC's small grants support big achievements at local schools
Librarian-teacher Judi Moreillon shows Corbett Elementary School fifth graders how to become experts in using CD-ROM technology for library research. Financial grants that HMSC awards to local schools through its Hughes Educational Partnership (HEP) program demonstrate that a little leverage goes a long way toward learning. Last year, one such grant expanded the library's potential at Corbett Elementary School; another helped stock a student-run store at Vail Middle School. Corbett Library Nine excited students at Corbett Elementary School sit in front of a computer and video display learning about ecology. They also become experts on CD-ROM (compact disk read-only memory) technology using materials purchased for their library with a grant from HEP. "It's fun," concludes fifth-grader Melissa about the new library learning tool. "It shows pictures and gives you lots of good information," her classmate Brenton explains. Librarian-teacher Judi Moreillon confirms that the students are more excited about learning. "The '90s child is more visually than textually oriented," she explains. "This is their world; it's the world of the future. As adults, they will work in a world of advanced technology." Vail student store At Vail Middle School, sixth-grader Shanika describes the Turtle Store: "It's smaller than a bathroom, but it sells lots of stuff." Their teacher, Diane Holtzman-King says the idea behind the store was to teach students consumer math, cooperative decision-making and marketing. A lesson she hadn't necessarily anticipated may be a more important outcome: "The students' manners have improved," she says, explaining that they have translated learning to wait on customers into how to treat people better in other social situations. Other grants To earn an HEP grant, classroom teachers, with their students, develop projects and write a proposal describing an action plan. HMSC funds those projects deemed most likely to support HEP goals. HEP recently awarded grants for:
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