Professor Creates CD-ROM With Screensaver Photos of Chico
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 18, 2003
Joe Wills
530-898-4143
Professor Creates CD-ROM With Screensaver Photos of Chico
A double CD-ROM with more than 1,100 photos of the Chico area for use as computer screensavers and slideshows has been created by California State University, Chico faculty member and health educator Mark Tomita as a fund-raiser for his college and department.
Life in Chico, Parts 1 and 2, is available at the Associated Students Bookstore and other retail businesses in Chico this week for $19.95. Proceeds from the sale will go to the Department of Health and Community Services and the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences as well as the CSU, Chico Office of Advising and Orientation.
Tomita took the photos with a digital camera in the spring and summer of 2003 and organized them for use in CD-ROM form. He is a specialist in the use of computer technology in health education and public health.
The CD-ROMs are formatted for PCs only. Tomita said he is working on a version for Macintosh computers.
Subjects in the CD-ROM include Bidwell Mansion, Bidwell Park, CSU, Chico, Chico downtown Friday Night Concerts, National Yo-Yo Museum, Saturday Morning and Thursday night markets, Silver Dollar Fair, Gold Nugget Museum in Paradise and the Centerville School House, Museum and Cemetery.
Instructions for how to download the images and place them as computer screensavers and slideshows are included on the CD-ROMs.
Tomita, who moved to Chico in summer 2002, got the idea for the CD-ROMs after doing a slideshow of Chico photos for a friend. “People enjoyed the images, and I had the idea of expanding it as a fund-raising project for the school.” He said he hopes businesses can use the CD-ROM for recruiting personnel, and civic groups for attracting new businesses to the area and promoting the Chico area as a great place to visit, raise children, or to retire. It could also be a gift for homesick Chicoans living abroad or relatives and friends who have never visited Chico, but who have heard a lot about the area, he said.
“I learned while taking these photos why people like Chico,” said Tomita, a native of Kaneohe, Hawaii. “The area has a lot to offer.”
Among the photos that stand out for him are shots of the Fourth of July pie-eating contest–“A must see,” he calls it–and the public art at various area schools.
Tomita said civic promotion is more than boosterism and can have a positive effect on the quality of people’s lives. “Building good feelings about your community is good for public health,” he said. “Public health is more than physical health–people should feel good about where they live. Health educators need to be promoting mental, emotional and social health.”
For more information, contact Tomita at 898-4417 or e-mail him at: mtomita@csuchico.edu.
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