"This is really nice," said the seventh-grader from the Academy of World Languages in Evanston.

The center is the result of a partnership between the Magic Johnson Foundation and Hewlett-Packard. It joins 16 others in 12 U.S. cities that are part of a multimillion-dollar program to address technical illiteracy among inner-city residents.

"This is about the children," said Johnson, the basketball legend who started the foundation in 1991. "This is a start to letting them know they can become anything they want to be, but they can't do it unless they have a level playing field. They must know how to work a computer."

Earvin "Magic" Johnson celebrated the opening of the Magic Johnson/HP Inventor Center housed in The Citizens' Committee on Youth facility at the corner of Liberty St. and Logan St. in Over-the-Rhine. (Enquirer photo/MICHAEL E. KEATING)

Johnson said he was headed for Cleveland to open an Inventor Center there. He talked of several businesses he has there, but said the environment was not right for him to invest here.

"I think the city has to heal first before we invest here," he said. "Our real estate people are looking throughout Ohio. We have the money. But the climate has to be right." His business interests include movie theaters, strip malls, restaurants, fitness centers and coffee shops.

Dorothy Jorden, executive director of the Citizens Committee on Youth, said the center will specialize in technology education for children and adults.

The Magic Johnson Foundation is a nonprofit organization that focuses on improving and addressing the health, educational and social needs of those residing in the inner city. The foundation has raised more than $20 million for charity.

The contribution to the center in Cincinnati was about $250,000.

Blue Ash charity golf

The Blue Ash/Montgomery Rotary Club will hold its annual charity golf tournament Sept. 21at the Blue Ash Golf Course, while the group also celebrates 100 years of "service above self."

Money from the tournament will be used to support local charities. Mark Korchok, president of the club, said the club programs include providing scholarships, partnering with the YMCA's "Bright Beginnings" program, donating to Crayons to Computers and maintaining the Rotary Family Center in Hazelwood.

For more information, call Jean Lauterbach at 807-2198 or visit www.bamrotary.org. To donate prizes for the raffle, auction and contests, contact Nadine Heithaus, 479-8557.

POSITIVELY KIDS: 8th-grader at conference

Aleque Novesl joined middle school students from throughout the country at the Junior National Young Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C., in July. "The Legacy of American Leadership" conference introduced students to thetradition of leadership throughout American history and helped them develop leadership skills. They also visited historic landmarks including Colonial Williamsburg.

Aleque, an eighth-grader at Woodland Middle School in Taylor Mill, is the daughter of Danae Nixon and Kevin Novesl, both of Independence.

Wyoming senior gets gold

Claire Murphy, a senior at Wyoming High School, was the first-ever recipient of the Girl Scout Gold Award from the school and the city. For her community service project, she planned and hosted a prom with a jazz band for senior citizens at a government-subsidized nursing home. Claire's friends from school attended the prom as dancing partners.

Other Wyoming High School students who subsequently earned the Gold Award were Erica Handley, who set up a high school tutoring program; Laura Friedenberg, who produced a variety show at a senior citizens center; Cathryn Roller, who organized a yearly family grill-out in an impoverished neighborhood; and Elizabeth Roller, who started a toiletry donation drive for an outreach center.

Info tech scholarship

Michael Feiertag of Finneytown High School was selected by the Scholarship Committee of the Ohio Association of Career Colleges and Schools as a winner of a $2,500 scholarship to attend the Information Technology program provided by the ITT Technical Institute, Norwood.

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