On a Friday evening, less than 48 hours before the ceremony, a friend of Amanda's family, Mike Tonick, walked into the Dallas, Texas, Fry's Electronics Store hoping to find some kind of solution to enable the teenager to "attend" her graduation without leaving her hospital room.

Mike was directed by Fry's department manager, Ric Almquist, to 8x8's ViaTV Videophone display. Keystone Marketing Representative, Diana McIntyre, hired by 8x8 to demonstrate how to use the product, was there to give a live demo and answer all of Mike's questions. It was quickly decided that ViaTV Videophones could be the solution that Mike was looking for.

"That's when it snowballed...By the next morning, Keystone Marketing, Perot Systems, Dallas Christian Academy, Afford Media and Fry's Electronics had pulled together determined to make it happen," recalls Diana.

Mike coordinated the entire project. He got the company he works for, Perot Systems, to provide the financial assistance. He went to Waco, several hours away, and assisted in setting up the equipment in Amanda's hospital room. Diana volunteered her time to assist with the setup of the ViaTV in the Dallas school's auditorium.

"The original idea had been to broadcast Amanda back to Dallas with a school representative (there in the hospital) presenting her with a cap and gown...We had a 40" monitor rolled behind the stage for that purpose. But Saturday evening, Amanda suffered a seizure during surgery and because she was in ICU we were facing not being able to videoconference at all," said Diana.

At 10:am Sunday morning, Amanda was moved to a private room. The ceremony was scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Quickly, an analog phone line was run into Amanda's hospital room and a VC105 was set up.

"It worked beautifully," said Diana. "Amanda Millward and her family enjoyed her graduation via ViaTV. It was really cool. Here was a kid that was lying in a hospital bed miles away while the friends and the school she attended for 14 years celebrated graduation. And she was able to join them!"

"She got to see and hear their prayers, their well wishes and their hopes for the future. Back in Waco, Amanda along with her parents witnessed the three fellow classmates that were also in the accident, accepting her diploma on her behalf. This was followed by a standing ovation. But the touching part came near the end when more than thirty of her friends came to personally talk face to face with Amanda using 8x8 technology. This was the first time many of them had spoken with Amanda since the accident."