by J. Kolenovsky
HAL-PC is honored to embark on a new direction for the future. HAL-PC has started a new program called Community Outreach. This program will serve several functions. First, it will provide for the recycling of reusable PCs in good working order. Secondly, it will allow HAL-PC members to participate in the program by volunteering to help restore the computers. Third, these refurbished machines would be ready to donate to area schools, non-profit organizations and charities.
The program’s concept came about through an opportunity last fall for HAL-PC to participate in the Royal ISD Annual Fair. With 30 days advance notice, HAL-PC produced 3 Chevrolet Suburbans full of used computers and software. (The software filled up a room 6’x6’.) This bounty of donations would not have been possible without the generous help and support of HAL-PC’s membership. Most of the computers were 386-20 MHz and there was one 486-33 MHz. HAL-PC was able to recycle and restore 1/3 of the machines on-site at the fair. The children were fascinated by the various components inside the cases. HAL-PC was taken on a tour of their computer lab and it was furnished with 386-20 MHz machines. Fort Bend Telephone donated an ISDN connection and a laptop to demonstrate the Internet. HAL-PC provided its screen and wall projector to display the view. The Superintendent and Principal and Lab Instructor heartily invited us back for their 2nd Annual Fair in December.
Afterwards, we started getting phone calls from charities and non-profit organizations requesting used computer donations. After assisting several of these requests, the small number of volunteers began to feel strained by a lack of help. All the while, the requests kept coming in and the donations weren’t. With HAL-PC being an all-volunteer organization, scheduling help can be quite difficult. Several members who volunteer good amounts of time on Saturdays observed that quite a few donations come in on that day. They bantered back and forth about the possibility of a program being created for this project. Finally, like minds prevailed and the concept of a new program was born. Thus, Community Outreach had come of age. This is the marvelous wonder about HAL-PC. If there is a need, it can be met.
The goal of Community Outreach is simple. TAKE IN 486-33’s and GREATER, clean/glean/refurbish them with the help of volunteers and members and get the machines ready for donations to schools, non-profit organizations and charities. WE NEED COMPUTERS and PERIPHERALS ONLY. PRINTERS, SOFTWARE or MANUALS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. Ultimately, we can build a volunteer pool to go out to the site and provide software support and familiarization. At present, we have the PC Upgrade SIG offering its SIG members to help with this program. They meet the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the HAL-PC headquarters. Another goal is to enlist volunteers helping HAL-PC to write grant proposals to the U. S. Government. The government has a department called TIIAP (Telecommunications Information Infrastructure Assistance Program) that processes grant requests and funds them for eligible organizations up to a period of 3 years and $300,000. Another possibility for HAL-PC in the future would be to partner with an organization to apply to this program in order to foster electronic education in the classroom. WHAT WE NEED for Community Outreach for the present IS GOOD, USED 486-33’s and GREATER and a volunteer pool in order to move forward with this program. The program has space reserved for it in our headquarters and all work would be done there as a quality control measure. WE WILL ALSO ACCEPT NEW COMPUTER DONATIONS and SPONSORSHIPS from local businesses and organizations. Please consider furthering HAL-PC’s wonderful generosity of helping by volunteering to help in whatever way you can and please tell your friends about it, too. If a donated computer could change a life/career, that is a small price to pay. For more information, contact J Kolenovsky via E-mail at garden@hal-pc.org or visit http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/ outreach.html.
J Kolenovsky is currently serving on the Board of Directors of HAL-PC, Chairman of the Community Outreach Committee, and serves on the Fundraising and Membership Committees) n
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