🎉 We are thrilled to announce that we’ve filled nearly all of our dates for Tech Talk Summer! 🎉
💎 Here’s the list of the awesome talks we’ll be hosting at the Laptop Upcycle Lab this Summer 💎

🛜” Network Engineers Toolkit" - We will be looking at free networking tools for Windows PCs; Advanced IP Scanner, ZeNmap, Wireshark and the tools built-in to Windows. - 📅 7/20

🔐 ”P@ssw0rd_Hy9!ene" - Let's talk about how to be more secure, and make signing in less of a chore. - 📅 7/27

📲 “Phone tech tips/providing tech support for seniors” - smart, simple ways to make tech more senior-friendly- 📅 8/3

❓ Maybe your talk! - 📅 8/10 ❓(see below)

🧬  "Technology in the life sciences" - Provide options for the kids to think about as they look forward with tech careers  - 📅 8/17

💻 ”So you want to publish an app" - Help the students to understand some of the things that may not be obvious when considering building an app for the app stores - 📅 8/24

 🤔 Yet to be decided - 8/31 📅 🤔 (see below)

Interested in attending? Space is at a premium! Please confirm your attendance at the following link:

If you’ve seen our previous posts and are still on the fence or are just hearing about this, we have two open slots, August 10th or August 31st! For details, please see our previous post here. Thank you!

You can submit your proposal at the link below:

We have had great response from the community and have a full slate of technology leaders set to share their insights in our lab. It all gets started this Sunday (July 13th at 2:00 PM) for a fascinating dive into how technology drives the engine of modern healthcare! Join Pramod Chakravarthy and discover how computers are used in every corner of the life sciences to improve care, increase efficiency, and reduce error. This talk will open your eyes to the digital infrastructure powering today’s healthcare systems. Come see how bits and bytes are shaping healthcare and beyond!

Attendee registration is not required, but space is limited! Please let us know if you plan to attend by selecting this date (7/13/2025) in the Google form link below.

https://forms.gle/4FVRsPgNaDdhaNQr6

Our mission of providing technology tools to those students who need it in and around Montclair is empowered by the superheros who support our lab. Each week High School volunteers join  Laptop Upcycle adult volunteer lab staff to renovate donated laptops for distribution. There, they learn technology and repair skills in addition to making a difference by giving back to the community.

Do you have your own Superpower to share?

This Summer, we're looking for local residents to join us to share their knowledge and inspire our student volunteers with your real world experience and passion. Laptop Upcycle Lab has decided to open its doors up for professionals and subject matter experts to give short talks on the everyday use of technology. 

If you have an idea for a short talk (15-30min with a short question and answer section at the end) we'd love to host it before our weekly volunteer session. 

The subject matter should be light, and aimed at non-experts as the audience will be mostly high school aged volunteers. Certainly the scope of topics may be broad, but here are a few examples we thought of in terms of subject matter and depth to get you started:

1. Password Managers - the good, the bad, the ugly and why we should use one
2. Cloud Storage -  What's involved in DIY'ing my own cloud backups?
3. Ad-pocalypse - what are our options when it comes to getting rid of ADs on sites we visit?

The scheduling for these talks will be:
Every Sunday starting at 2pm sharp
July 13th through August 31st

Please follow this link to our submission form if you are interested! If accepted, we plan to promote your talk on our social media platforms.

We hope you will consider joining us in the lab!

Today, a discussion of how laptop donations from your organization are integral to our nonprofit and are also of benefit to you.

Historically, we have been thankful for local donations of laptops from the community and businesses to help us meet the computing needs of young adults in and around Montclair. To sustain our operations and expand our mission to classrooms and organizations we partner with, we are looking to increase the donations we receive from businesses.

• Business donations are generally a large group of similar laptops resulting from the normal upgrade process.
• Similar hardware donations provide groups of working laptops that can be given to students in common groups without the possibility of jealousy, “her laptop is nicer than mine.”
• Groups of laptop donations allow our volunteers to combine parts of similar machines thus generating working laptops from individually damaged machines.
• Larger donation blocks allow our team to better manage expectations from partner organizations for laptop gifts to their clients.

Remember  that business donations help donor companies like yours as well. In addition to the un-quantifiable benefit of making a positive change in the life of a student in need, a business that donates laptops in bulk -

• Saves the expense of paying a recycling company for picking up and processing the laptops.
• Avoids the dumping of dangerous materials in to a landfill.
• Connects your business to the local community and demonstrates your positive values.
• Promotes your business through our various media channels.

If you are responsible for the equipment in your shop and have laptops to donate, that's great! There are two ways to kick off the process.

1. Visit this link (or point your thumb driven device at the QR code) and fill out the donation form. We will take it from there.
   
2. Contact us directly, share the best way to get in touch and we will get back to you.
   

If you work for a company and you want to help, contact your Information Technology (IT) department and ask them to consider donating laptops to Laptop Upcycle. Find out where replaced machines from a corporate upgrade are sent and propose a change in policy that will help your community. Be a squeaky wheel! If you need our help in advocating for you, just let us know (see above).

We understand that there may be questions about the process and concerns about security of data. We have processes in place and many options for your business in this regard. Connect us with your IT team and we can help.

Thank you!

With students back in school and Summer vacation memories fading, we share a few updates from Laptop Upcycle. Today, just a summary for you, but in the coming weeks look for more detail on each of the following as we hope to reboot our communication efforts.

• Our individual Give/Get operations continue in earnest and the team has now given over 1850 laptops to students in need.
• Speaking of the "team", we have expanded our local support efforts with a new partnership with the Kiwanis of Montclair. The Kiwanis have been supporting students in and around Montclair for years and we're excited to have Ann Bismal, Deborah New, and Luke Pontier working with Cynthia Newlin to coordinate the distribution of laptops to those in need.
• Other partnerships are being renewed and expanding. We recently agreed to partner with the Passaic County Community College to start a Laptop Upcycle at their campus in Paterson, and we have renewed our agreements with Ramapo College and the Essex County Community College Adult Learning Center. This past Summer we joined the Montclair Mutual Aid organization in their Adopt a Mountie program and we were at the Wally Choice Community Center for their back to school event with the Sentinels-16 Association.
• With the Montclair High student back in school our lab volunteer sessions are back online and active. Welcome back! Students are encouraged to join us. Visit the Volunteer page to get started and secure a spot. Thanks to Mike Brown, Mark Zbucki, and Ed Martin in the lab for their continued leadership in helping to educate our volunteers and run the sessions!
• We need your donations! To support expanding demand for laptops and our expanding partner network, please consider donating your lightly used laptops to us. Or, (even better) consider your personal business network and those who may have access to groups of laptops not being used that could be given to students in need. We can make it happen.
  

Thank you for supporting Laptop Upcycle and our mission!

This past Tuesday and Wednesday Mike Brown and Jon Bonesteel were invited by Ms. Donna McGowan at Nishuane Elementary School in Montclair to help them with their technology class. Her students have been learning how computers work and all the parts that compose the technology they use day to day.

We were happy to bring a cart full of various computers and describe all the parts they had only seen pictures of so far and let them take them further apart. It was so fun to demystify it for them and we were also surprised at how much more they already knew!

From Ms. McGowan, "I want to thank you both so much for your visits with our 2nd graders these past 2 days.  The kids definitely had a great time exploring all the desktop and laptop parts, and it was a great way for them to gain hands-on experience with the items they have been learning about."

We thank you Ms. McGowan, and please enjoy the pics she shared with us:

So you had a great holiday season. We did too, except for the whole flood thing, but we're not going there. Happy New Year to you all, and we wish you all the best for 2024. Keep the positive vibes going by considering Laptop Upcycle as you replace old tech with newer faster bits. We'll wipe your data securely (if you haven't already and even if you have we'll wipe it anyway), install a new image on your old laptop, and get it in the hands of a young student who needs it. It makes a difference in a student's life, it keeps the hardware out of a landfill, and it will make you feel good.

That's a win, win, win.

To get the process started, simply click on the link below, fill out the form, and we'll pick it up or you can drop it off. Then you'll get a donation letter/receipt from us. Do it now. Yes, you're a good person, and you're making a difference.

PS - If you are affiliated with (or know) a company and have a LOT of older laptops that are gathering dust, have them donate all of them and then you'll be a really, really, really, good person. We'll give you a hug!

Greetings and Happy October to all! We have been busy in the Lab and out in our community as the school year has kicked in to full gear. Happily, our weekly lab sessions continue to be well attended and we have a new group of energetic young adults under the tutelage of Mike and Ed. 

In our post-pandemic world, the number of direct distributions to students of laptops (Gets as we call them) has decreased from last year. We're not entirely sure what is behind this, but we are working hard to find new channels for Gets by working with our local partners and contacts within the schools. Here are but a few of our recent successes as we look to expand our outreach and expand our education programs.

The United Community Corporation and the Essex County Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs (Newark, NJ) - Just this week we met with the team at the West Side Park complex in Newark to provide 18 laptops for their shared work space in the community center where they will host after school programs for students and training programs with their other partners. Yolanda Loney, the Director of Youth, Family, and Senior Services was excited for our support and we look forward to more activities with her team.

Late this past Summer Laptop Upcycle gained a new partnering organization, the Urban Health Collaborative (TUHC). Summer interns Yanice (Yah-niece) Toone and Sofia Bari, under the tutelage of board members Jon Bonesteel and Frances Smith, did outreach projects and snagged this new contact. Pictured above is Zaire Ali, Director of TUHC, picking up 10+ laptops and 5 monitors slated for community education and student tutoring.

Again, this past Summer, we kicked off an exciting partnership with the Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District's Youth Arts Collective (YAC). The LPCCDYAC (that's a long one) is an arts meets tech education program for youth aged 10-17 that will provide them with knowledge and employable skills needed to be successful in the 21st Century.  Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District's YAC is aligned with our mission of planning, designing, and developing a comprehensive arts and cultural district in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of downtown Newark.  The program is managed by BRND Marketing Group LLC and the lead facilitator is Malik Whitaker of Cement Gallery. The  students represent every ward in the City of Newark, attend public and charter schools and are as diverse as the city itself. Most are from single parent homes. We have students that are bilingual; some have admitted to using art to heal their depression and social anxiety; at least two are currently living in a shelter with their parent; one is diagnosed as legally blind; we have a student athlete and there is at least one learning disorder.  Yet - art is the common denominator.  Most importantly, thanks to Arts Ed Newark, we are able to feed them lunch during the class time of 9am-12pm and for some, this is their first meal of the day.

Laptop Upcycle donated 16 laptops to the YAC for a class in Newark where the students used the laptops to learn:
- Orientation and Intro to Illustration
- From Illustration to Painting
- Graphic Design and 2D Character Design
- 2D Character Design to 3D Animation
- Exploring Special Effects (SFX)
- 3D Printing and Rendering
- Fundamentals and Basics of NFT

After successfully completing the class, the students (with their parents/guardians in attendance) were given the laptops to keep and use for school this Fall. Our Co-founder, Jon Bonesteel, was there to wish them well and deliver the laptops. Thanks so much to Kimberly Ford from the YAC!

Last, but certainly not least, we've been busy with local Montclair organizations and have made some great progress. No photos yet, but soon, we promise.

• Every year for the past 5 we have presented and shared our story with the incoming 9th graders at Montclair High in the Imani program. As one part of their on-going mission to close the achievement gap by collaborating with parents, teachers, and school administrators to provide focused academic and social support for students of color, they host a week long orientation program. Laptop Upcycle was there again this year to offer volunteer opportunities and laptops to those students who needed them to help them start High School with the tools they need.
• Laptop Upcycle has been working with the MFEE and their Navegador program team to support the Spanish speaking community in our schools. Families ans students in need get the technology resources (laptops and free WiFi hotspots) they need from us and the staff and volunteers from MFEE lead the way in supporting those in the program. For us, it's a win win.
• Earlier this year the Kiwanis of Montclair assisted us with a PR campaign in the hopes of reaching more students in need in and around Montclair. In addition to local posted flyers in store and shops the Kiwanis helped raise awareness throughout the community. This Fall, a group of their volunteers have received training from our staff and will be assisting with Gets at our lab. We're happy to be working with them!
  

As we review feedback from our Summer interns on this tired web site in need of update, please see and share our new tri-fold brochure, below and on the About Us page. Our site will be slowly refreshed in the coming weeks for the Fall Back to School season.

We are excited to announce  our newest Laptop Upcycle Board member, Giancarlo Di Lonardo. With his diverse experience in board development and his active roles with various NJ nonprofits, Giancarlo will be a key contributor to our planned growth in Montclair and Northern NJ this Fall and into 2024.

Please join us in welcoming Giancarlo to the team!