Give Laptops

Givelaptops.org is excited to anounce a partnership with New Haven based MakeHaven maker space. MakeHaven has offered to collect and refurbish laptops to help expand our inventory for students in need in the New Haven area.

The core team meets to kick off the project.

There is strong interest in the Maker community to build a laptop based on opensource software. The advantages are that there are no licensing costs, it is more secure and it runs much quicker on older laptops like the ones donated to Givelaptops.org. The first step in the initiative is to beta test a laptop built with open source software in the real world. High School freshman Quinn Meehan has agreed to run a beta laptop through it's paces and advise the team on needed enhancements.

Quinn Meehan, shows the beta version of the open source laptop.

Once testing is done the team will build a software suite that includes all elements that a student would need to get their work done including word processing, presentation, spreadsheet, image editing and of course a modern internet browser among other software.

If you would like to make a monetary or laptop donation please visit our donation page. 

Founder Jack Nork will be speaking about Givelaptops.org and how you can help on Tuesday 3/10/2015 at MakeHaven. For more information and to RSVP go here: http://www.meetup.com/MakeHaven/events/220613125/

Today's recipient of a Give Laptops computer is an amazing young man named Tramaine Williams. He is the 2011 Golden Gloves National Boxing Champion and is working really hard to get enough credits to graduate from New Horizons High School in New Haven Connecticut even though he has a very demanding travel schedule. His teacher Merrie Harrison is working with Tramaine to complete his lessons remotely on his new GiveLaptop.org computer. He is very interested in starting a business when he graduates.

Congratulations Tramaine. We love to see students with such talent and drive!

Wow the students being awarded computers from GiveLaptops.org have amazing stories.

One student was actually riding his bike to his grandmothers house in another town to use her computer to complete his homework assignments and was falling behind. Now that he has his own laptop he is able to focus on getting his work done at home.

Another student was doing so well in school that her teacher helped her to enroll in a college course at Gateway Community College, but she didn't have a computer to use. Now with her GiveLaptops computer she is able to complete all of her homework assignments and able to do research on the internet.

A third student spoke to his school about trying to become a semi-professional boxer and asked if they could help him continue his schooling even when he was on the road. The school is putting together a curriculum that he can do as he travels around the country through his GiveLaptops.org computer.

We are always on the lookout for laptop donations, laptop bags, or even monitary donations that will help us to do minor repairs such as getting replacement batteries or power cords.

If you have a laptop do donate please fill out the Donate A Laptop form. If you would like to make a tax deductible financial contribution please visit the City Wide Youth Coalition page on Network For Good and write "Give Laptops" into the designation box.