Upcoming Volunteer Day & PittsburghCares.org

April 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment

We’re having another big volunteer work day next Saturday, April 27th from 8:00am – 4:00pm, with most of the work taking place in the morning. We have 2 objectives for the day: imaging and moving.  Ubuntu imaging will take place over a PXE Server system at ITT Tech. Box moving of over 100 computers will take place all morning. Please use our WhenIsGood form to fill out the hours you plan on helping out. You’ll also find more event details and directions there.

If you plan to attend, please sign in at our brand new Pittsburgh Cares site (please note: you’ll need to initiate a new password on your first login).

In a move to scale up our volunteer operations at Computer Reach we have joined PittsburghCares.orgforces with Pittsburgh Cares, an online volunteer coordination portal. The mission of Pittsburgh Cares is, “to maximize the impact of our regional nonprofit partners by mobilizing volunteers and engaging the community.”

By partnering with the broader volunteer community around Pittsburgh our Computer Reach members will see other opportunities to be involved with community outreach all over Western PA.

Filed Under: charity, community outreach, Computer Reach News, electronics, electronics recycling, pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Volunteering, PittsburghCares.org, recycling, technology, volunteering, volunteers Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Back with Duquesne University Students

March 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment

We had another great work day with volunteer students from Duquesne University at the Goodwill Apple “Annex” at 2400 Carson Street on the South Side of Pittsburgh. This video shows our 7th week, working on recycling the 50th computer with the students! This has been a great partnership over the course of the Spring semester. We hope all the students are learning about computer components, responsible recycling and the e-waste problem. Many thanks to instructor Loraine Sauchin for coordinating all of this.

You can read about our previous days with the students and enjoy videos here, here and here.

Filed Under: community outreach, donated computers, Duquesne University, electronics recycling, pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Volunteering, recycling, volunteering, volunteers Tagged With: , , , , ,

Volunteer Work Day at ITT Tech Tarentum

February 27, 2013 By Leave a Comment

 

On Saturday February 23rd, we had our first volunteer work day at ITT Tech in Tarentum, PA. You may have seen our earlier post asking readers to sign up to volunteer with us in this new space the last Saturday of each month. You can still sign up here!

We started in our new space with a very productive day. We unloaded 81 Apple computer boxes from our U-Haul truck at Construction Junction and then loaded 116 Linux computer boxes for for transport back to ITT refurbishing and imaging production work.

  • We had 26 volunteers attend.
  • They logged 146 man-hours in one day.
  • We ate 10 pizzas and drank well over 36 water bottles!

Many thanks to Director Joshua Joseph, Computer Science Director Bill Gano and Career Services Director Bart Blum for great logistical support today.

Check out the video below.

Filed Under: computers, donated computers, electronics, electronics recycling, ITT, Pittsburgh Volunteering, recycling, refurbished computers, volunteering, volunteers Tagged With: , , , , ,

New Saturday Volunteer Time

February 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment

We’re very excited to announce a new year-round site for recycling on the last Saturday of every month. You can now join us at ITT Technical Institute in Tarentum (behind the Pittsburgh Mills Mall).

 

Several people have requested advanced notice of our Saturday recycling events so they can set their calendars and commit to a few hours on a weekend far in advance. Now, with this new location, you can do just that! Visit this poll to sign up for a date and time to volunteer that works for you, all the way up through December 2013! You may come back to edit these volunteering times as much as needed. Our leadership team is notified when any times are chosen or removed, so there is no need to email or call us.

Our first volunteer workday event at ITT will be this Saturday February 23  from 10am – 4pm. We will be sorting and fixing 200 computers !

WHERE: 100 Pittsburgh Mills Circle, Tarentum, PA 15084 (724) 274-1400

WHEN: Choose “When It Is Good” by click on the times to highlight them in bright green. Registering through the poll helps us prepare lunch and all day refreshments.
The ITT campus has free parking and is connected to the back of Pittsburgh Mills, a great mall with food and shopping and entertainment for all ages. If you need more information on volunteering with Computer Reach, contact Dave Sevick at 724-779-0099 or email sevick@computereach.com.

See you all soon!

Filed Under: Computer Reach News, donated computers, electronics, electronics recycling, ITT, pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Volunteering, recycling, refurbished computers, technology, volunteering, volunteers Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Help Put Computers in Students’ Hands

February 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Studetns at BJWLAs of this month, our Pittsburgh area volunteers have refurbished for re-use 4,051 Computers! This is an amazing number that we are so proud to share with you. But, we always want more! That’s why we can use your help to fund several local school projects.

When we place a computer in a school, each computer serves 5 students every day.

By re-using equipment, rather than buying new, each computer we recycle reduces our carbon footprint.

If you’re interested in helping with a donation, or helping by donating your time as a volunteer, call our Executive Director Dave Sevick for more details. You can also donate directly on our website.  YES, we are a 501c3 charity!

Thanks again for all the volunteering and funding support as we continue to grow.

About this photo:
This picture is a still from a video that shows our Computer Reach team delivering a total of 11 computers to a Family Resources site at BJWL in the Hill District of Pittsburgh on August 17, 2011. LaRay Moton is the Site coordinator and Jamayia Moore is the site supervisor. The kids were really great and excited to get the new technology. Volunteer Marty Swartz deserves credit for taking the time to help organize and deliver the computers to this site.

Filed Under: charity, community outreach, donated computers, electronics recycling, fundraising, literacy, pittsburgh, recycling, refurbished computers, volunteering Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Duquesne Students Return to Volunteer with CR!

February 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment

We had two more days of computer recycling with students from Duquesne University. It’s been great to have a different mix of students each week so more learn about the importance of eWaste recycling.

In the video from Week 2, meet five students, led by Lorraine Sauchin, who helped us with important demanufacturing steps.

Below is the video from Week 3 with the students.  It features our Computer Recycling leader Bob Donaldson and Duquesne teacher Lorraine Sauchin training seven new students how to properly recycle plastic, metal, logic boards, etc.  according to Pennsylvania and international standards.

Stay tuned for more updates throughout the semester. We really appreciate this consistent help each week, thank you Duquesne University!

Filed Under: community outreach, Computer Reach News, electronics, electronics recycling, goodwill, Pittsburgh Volunteering, recycling, refurbished computers, volunteering, volunteers Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Meet our new Team Members

February 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Peter Carras, Director of Operations

Peter Carras, Director of Operations

We’d like to officially welcome Peter Carras to the Computer Reach team. Peter is now our Director of Operations. His duties include assisting with computer inventory, volunteer event logistics and serving as a right-hand-man to our leadership team.

Peter is a long time Apple enthusiast and Monroeville’s County Of Westmoreland Macintosh Users Group (COWMUG) leader, a University of Pittsburgh neuroscientist and has been a volunteer computer recycler with us for many years.

We’d also like to extend a warm welcome to Ted Rodgers, our new Director of Technology. Ted is a Unix expert and long time leader of the local Linux user group in Pittsburgh.  He is a University of Pittsburgh graduate and steady technical leader at our volunteer events.  He has special skills in large deployments of Linux via customized imaging

Ted Rodgers, Director of Technology

Ted Rodgers, Director of Technology

processes. Ted was also instrumental in forging our relationship with the Western PA Linux Users Group and the new ITT relationship (stay tuned for more news on that partnership later!).

We look forward to sharing more news of how Peter and Ted are helping Computer Reach meet our mission of saving the world, one recycled computer at a time.

 

 

Filed Under: Computer Reach News, electronics recycling, pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Volunteering, recycling, technology Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Day 1 with Duquesne University Volunteers

February 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment

We had our first day of work with volunteers from Duquesne University on Friday. Five students from Lorraine Sauchin’s Elements of Computer Science class came to the warehouse to help us demanufacture computers for reuse. They were joined by our CRC Goodwill recycling regulars.

We look forward to having Duquesne students with us every Friday this semester. We are very grateful for their help! If you’d like to volunteer your time with us, please complete the contact form on our website.

Filed Under: computers, donated computers, electronics, electronics recycling, goodwill, pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Volunteering, recycling, volunteering, volunteers Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Read: How to Bridge the Digital Divide with Broken Computers

January 31, 2013 By Leave a Comment
An Exploration Station volunteer dismantles an old PC.

An Exploration Station volunteer dismantles an old PC.

We recently came across this article that highlights how we can bridge the digital divide, and get more people of every income level using computers in their homes and at work. It’s always astonishing how many perfectly usable computers and electronic devices are thrown away. The Exploration Station in Grover Beach, California refurbishes used computers for their Computers 4 Youth program just like we do here in Pittsburgh.

 

Apple sold 237 million iPods, iPads, Macs, and other devices from January to September of last year. In 2005, US households threw away 304 million electronic devices, including computers; two-thirds of those devices still worked. But computers aren’t nearly as ubiquitous as they seem—at least, not for everyone. Here’s where abundance butts heads with scarcity: 46% of the poorest households in America still don’t own a home computer.

Over the past 14 years, the Computers 4 Youth program has given out nearly 4,000 computers to kids and adults in need.  Here in Pittsburgh, our program just hit 4,015 computers refurbished for re-use! It seems like we have a lot in common with the California program – including a passionate team of volunteers to help with our efforts. Without them, many of these programs would not be possible.

Read the full article here and get engaged by commenting below or on our Facebook page.

Filed Under: charity, computers, electronics recycling, literacy, pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Volunteering, recycling, refurbished computers, volunteering, volunteers Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Welcome New Volunteers

January 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment

We are growing our most valuable resource… volunteers.

We are pleased to report that Duquesne University has signed up over 20 students to participate in our recycling efforts every Friday this semester at the Goodwill on the South Side of Pittsburgh.

Many thanks to Computer Science instructor Lorraine Sauchin for facilitating these efforts!

Lorraine pulled together our first group of tech students from Duquesne for this community service volunteering effort. Students will be focusing on the de-manufacturing of non-fixable computers that we have stacked in large piles. They will be adhering to the Goodwill of Southwestern PA standards of separating of glass, plastic, metal, logic boards, cables, and power supplies for responsible electronic material down-streaming of eWaste as per Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection laws. Follow this link for more information on the Covered Device Recycling Act.

Duquesne University is following the trend of entire classroom participation set by our reliable friends of ITT Technical Institute in Tarentum.

Thank you and a big welcome to Lorraine and her students.

Filed Under: electronics, electronics recycling, goodwill, pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Volunteering, recycling, refurbished computers, technology, volunteering, volunteers Tagged With: , , , , ,
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