Will January finish itself already? Sorry, just had to get that off our chests.

After a great 2022, Laptop Upcycle is looking forward to a 2023 full of growth and sharing of our mission both in Montclair and our neighboring communities. To succeed, we could use your help, and it’s really simple.

Can you network for us?

Last year we gave out close to 400 laptops to students who needed them for their homework at home. In the course of preparing these laptops for distribution, our lab volunteers put in hundreds of hours of time giving back to the community, and donors (both individual and corporate) were so generous in donating nearly new laptops to our cause.

Here’s what you can do -

Our success to date has had one common denominator, personal and organization connections within the community. If you can help us by considering your personal network and how your friends and business relationships could be brought to bear in assisting with getting a new laptop into the hands of a student, we (and they) would greatly appreciate it. Here are some examples of what you could do:

• Are you engaged in the education community in or around Montclair and do you experience groups of students or schools that have a technology gap? We understand that many districts loan chromebooks for students to use, but we have found that ownership and the power of laptops that are more full featured help students. Work with us to target these underserved communities by first letting us know about them and second, putting us in contact with those on point there so we can make a plan to help.
  
• Within your work network do you know of businesses or organizations that have large numbers of laptops not being used? We are looking for donations and businesses usually have blocks of similar machines that make it easier for us to process them en mass. We can provide documentation of our data wipe procedures or we would happily accept laptops without the hard drives in them, which our volunteers can replace.
• Finally, speaking of volunteers, do you have or know of someone who has some time to contribute to our cause? We can always use adult help in the areas of business development, public relations and social medial support, board development, and lab session volunteers. Basically, we know you have a super power, and if you could send a little bit of that magic our way, we would appreciate it.

These are but 3 examples. If you have other ideas or would like to chat about those above, please pop us an email at giveget@laptopupcycle.org.

You can make a difference in a young students life.

Yesterday we shared a thank you to those corporate donors and local partners that helped us have a great 2022 supporting our mission in and around Montclair. Certainly, distributions to local students like the one today of 26 laptops (above) from us via Succeed2gether would not be possible without such partners. Laptop Santa is VERY happy!

However, that is only part of the story. Our ability to deliver laptops like the photo above, or to achieve any of the other successes we realized this year would not be possible with out the hard work and focus of our lab volunteers led by Mike Brown. Mike and his team supported by Mark Zbucki, our technical lead, hold two sessions each week where High School volunteers do the work that often goes unnoticed in our lab.

Student volunteers check in, test, securely wipe any data on donated laptops, install operating systems, test (again), and clean each laptop that comes in to our doors. All of this is done under the the auspices of Mike. There are many small steps along the way in preparing laptops to be upcycled. Each one is important and each volunteer plays a part in our success.

So, here's Part 2 -

To Mike and his team of 100% volunteers, we thank you. Without your commitment to our cause we would not be able to make the positive difference we do in and around our community.

Happy Holidays All!

And we mean it -- straight from the Laptop Upcycle Lab in the basement of the United Way building. We are grateful to everyone who thought of us so that we could provide laptops to kids in need. Your generosity has allowed hundreds of students to get their work done.

And (drumroll please), we are thanking these organizations for their thoughtful 2022 thinking that’s helped so many:

Bloomberg Philanthropies
The Electronic Access Foundation
Boston Consulting Group
Essence Global Advertising
Guardian Data Destruction
T-Mobile Communications
The Sentinals-16
MFEE
Succeed2gether
Celonis

Finally, thank you to New Jersey Community Capital (owners of the old United Way building) for renting their generous space (even during construction!) As we enter the Season of Giving, we know that more students will need laptops to get their basic education.  Please consider adding your name to our thankful and thinking list for 2022 with a donation or proposal.

Parents or guardians (you elves you) can visit our Get Technology page here. Enter the basic request information on the form, including contact information. In the last field "Is there anything else you would like to include about this request?" just enter "Laptop Santa". Laptop Santa will wrap the laptop(s) you request and set up a time to get the package(s) to you before Christmas (or the holiday you celebrate).

Time is short, get busy elves. Laptop Santa wants to help.

As always, laptops given are free and for students to keep. Any questions? Email Santa.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2022 has been a great year and we have you to thank.

Some highlights to…. well, highlight:

Two Laptop Upcycle outposts have been established on two college campuses to meet the needs of overlooked, deserving students. Each location is developing a self-sustaining donation + refurbishment Laptop Upcycle model.

• Laptop Upcycle@Ramapo College, originally established in 2021 and renewed in 2022, serves its low-income, enrolled student population through the WeCare organization there on campus.
• Laptop Upcycle@ECC is onsite at the Essex County College Adult Learning Center in Newark and services 400 adult students who are working towards GED, US citizenship or MS Office certification. 

Laptop Upcycle qualified for the T-Mobile Project 10 Million to help provide internet access to students who need it. As a result, we are able to support 240 students with no-cost WIFI to ensure that they can do homework…at home!

The Dr Frank Napier Jr. School of Technology in Paterson now has a fully-equipped and functioning computer lab in their school. Additionally, over 30 laptops have been provided to their identified students in need.

Girls in Stem! Paterson Schools invited us to participate in their “Girl Power Group” in School #16. We hosted the teachers and students in our lab for a tour, presentations and some hands-on work
We were thrilled to support Montclair Police Department Sentinels-16 as part of their 18th Annual Free Schools Supply event and, as a result, provided 80 Montclair, low-income students with laptops!

In partnership with DonorsChoose.org, we helped outfit and setup the Newark Arts School with donated Macs – the perfect tech solution.

Montclair remains our core community for the support of our mission. In addition to the 80 laptops provided at the Sentinals-16 event described above, our team led by Cynthia Newlin, delivered an additional 240 laptops to students in need here bringing our total number of laptops given out so far this year in Montclair as 320! And, Laptop Santa has not even started yet!

Are you as excited as we are? In EVERY highlight above, your donated, refurbished laptops eliminate impediments to learning and create an opportunity for academic success!

Finally (and most importantly), with the leadership of Mike Brown and his lab team we have maintained an active and vibrant lab volunteer and training corpse that allows all of the above successes to occur and trains young adults with hands on computer skills. Our volunteers give back to the community by doing all the work that prepares the laptops to be distributed. They have fun, and they earn community service hours for school. Win, win, win!

Please enjoy the following slide show that highlights just a few of our accomplishments and our Laptop Upcycle heros.

We can’t do it without your support.

Please consider donating funds this Giving Tuesday to help us continue recycling donated laptops and distributing them to students who really need them.

The link below will direct you to our giving page where you can donate next Tuesday. Or, you could do it TODAY. We won't tell anyone. :)

*** For Immediate Release ***

Partnership Provides Laptops for ECC Adult Learning Center

As anyone who is familiar with us knows, our primary mission is to support students in Middle and High schools with the tech tools they need to succeed in school. We have had a great back to school season, including huge success at the Sentinels-16 Back to School event a couple of weeks ago.

We at Laptop Upcycle are also passionate about assisting teachers in their classrooms. Sometimes these champions of our schools run in to road blocks or budget limitations within their districts when they are in need of equipment. Laptop Upcycle is happy to help where we can. Earlier this year we helped set up a tech lab in Paterson, NJ. Most recently, we noted a request from a teacher at the Arts High School in Newark via the Donor Choose site online. Donor Choose allows teachers to request supplies and support equipment for their classrooms. Mrs. Janae Taylor (below) in the Mathematics Department at the Arts High School was in need of a few Mac OS computers for her lab.

Our Board member Cynthia Newlin contacted Mrs. Taylor and reviewed her needs. Luckily we had a few extra Macs in stock that would fit her needs, so we were able to set up her work space in Newark and now both she and her students can more easily complete their assignments. Thanks Cynthia and thanks Donor Choose for connecting us.

Today the Laptop Upcycle team had an awesome day at the Sentinels-16 Back to School event in Lackawanna Plaza. Board member Cynthia Newlin led the other volunteers Judith Celestin and Rebecca Feit-Klein from Essex County Community College and one of our star High School volunteers Amelia Wong. On a hot day they gave out 80 coupons for free laptops to students in need. Those who picked one up, will stop by the lab next to the library later this week to pick up their own laptop for school this Fall. Please remember that even if you couldn't make it to the plaza today, you can always request a laptop or free hotspot online at our web site here. Thank you so much to our passionate volunteers and all those who came out to meet them today!

Laptop Upcycle has successfully qualified as a participating organization of the T-Mobile Project 10 Million to help provide internet access to all students who need it. This means we have 240 hotspots to hand out to any family in need in our local area.  Go to our Get Technology page to see if you qualify.

If you own one of the more than 230 existing hotspots that we have given out in the past 5 years thanks to the generous grants from the Don Katz and Leslie Larson Foundation, please note that these have been disabled to due to a network consolidation by T-Mobile, and you are eligible for a replacement.

We have scheduled a delivery session for July 30 from 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM in the Laptop Upcycle Lab at 60 South Fullerton Ave, Montclair (use the side entrance and ring the bell if the door is locked).  Bring your old hotspot and get a replacement.  Or apply and get approved online this week. If you are not available this Saturday, please contact us and we can arrange another date/time to meet you.

All hotspots have filters for safe family browsing and are totally free with enough bandwidth for school work. Want to learn more?  Check out https://www.t-mobile.com/business/education/project-10-million

See you in the Lab.

Your Laptop Upcycle Team

Recently we highlighted the initiative championed by our Board member Cynthia Newlin to provide laptops to the Girl Power group led by Special Education Teacher Ms. Renee' Cleaves-Bryant and Paraprofessional Ms. Lydeasha Crawford, who teach at Public School #16 in Paterson, NJ.