For some time I have wanted to do something to directly bless those in our community in need. It finally gelled in my mind what I could do, and the process has begun! I'm very excited!Scholarship-- Free Computers!
Our small firm goes through computers, replacing at least one desktop and/or notebook each year. We've established a scholarship for those in our community between the ages of 13 and 21 who don't have a computer and have a harder time competing in school because of it. We're taking our older systems, erasing the hard drive (fdisk) and putting a fresh installation of Windows and Office on them (both legitimate copies). Then we're adding an inexpensive printer and giving them away! Cool, huh!
And that got me to thinking that this is an easy way for churches and ministries to bless those in their community and build more bridges to the unsaved around us! I mentioned it in the Church IT Podcast today and someone shared that they've been wanting to do something similar... and theirs is also a GREAT idea. Their IT staff and volunteers will advertise Free Geek Day where folks can bring their computers and get free help!
Technology Bridges
I'm especially excited to see new ways we can help reach those around us for Christ while meeting very practical needs. Let me know what you're doing or preparing to do too!
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4 comments:
Nick,
That's fantastic! Our community has a project called "Tech ReConnect" which takes old hardware and recycles it, giving fully functioning, rebuilt computers to those in need. Very similar to what you're doing.
One thing I would recommend: Use a free utility like "Derik's Boot and Nuke" to erase the hard drive. An erase with Fdisk could allow someone to recover sensitive information from the hard drive.
See here: http://dban.sourceforge.net/
Thanks for the post!
Thanks for the tip! My favorite method is eliminating the partition, which I don't think any utilities can recover from.
We did something similar before the holidays at my church. We had a benefit concert. It was free to get in, but we took a donation and raised $7,000. With that money, we bought 14 dell laptops and gave them to soliders that were being sent to Iraq. The soliders did not know they were getting these laptops and were so excited that they had a way to communicate with their families. It was an awesome community outreach.
What a GREAT idea! You KNOW they were blessed!
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