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Laptop Upcycle Free WiFi Device Sunset and Possible Replacement

6/30/2022

 
In the past 5 years Laptop Upcycle has with the support of a generous donation from the Don Katz and Leslie Larson Foundation provided over 235 free WiFi hotspots to local families of students in need. These devices have been a key component of our strategy of delivering technology tools to those who need them locally.

Two weeks ago we were informed by T-mobile that as a result of the merger between T-mobile and US Sprint that the service on these devices would terminated due to network consolidation. These devices are set to expire today (June 30, 2022).

Laptop Upcycle has been working aggressively with T-mobile to arrange replacements for the sunset devices. We are hopeful that a new agreement with T-mobile to be a part of their Project 10 Million initiative will allow us to replace all of the existing devices, but we have yet to receive final approval.

We hope to have good news very soon and will share our plan for replacement devices as soon as we possibly can. We’re sorry for the pending service disruption, but the short notice was out of our control.

As soon as we have an update, we will share it with all.

Thank you!

Girl Power/Boy Power

6/3/2022

 
Laptop Upcycle outreach to neighboring communities continues to accelerate with the help of Cynthia Newlin's hard work. Recently Cynthia conducted a training session with Special Education Teacher Ms. Renee' Cleaves-Bryant, and Paraprofessional Ms. Lydeasha Crawford, who teaches at Public School #16 in Paterson, NJ. They will assist Laptop Upcycle in distributing and supporting both Girl Power and Boys Group with the tools they need for summer programs and school this Fall. Of course, the 24 laptops they received from us are theirs to keep. We're also looking forward to hosting Girl Power in our lab later this month for some hands-on training! 

Thank you Ms. Cleaves-Bryant, Ms. Crawford, and Cynthia! You all rock!

Make a Difference for a Young Adult - Join Us!

5/16/2022

 

Look What You Can Do

First, before we get to our ASK, we want to thank you for all your support. You have contributed in so many ways. From single personal donations of equipment or funds, to larger business/block donations, and even just word of mouth recommendations, your support has allowed us to:
  • Give more than 1100 laptops to local students in need.
  • Share more than 150 free WiFi hotspots with families who otherwise would not have it at home.
  • Support over 135 High School volunteers in our lab, contributing more than 3500 hours of service to the community.
  • Responsibly repurpose electronics that would have otherwise gone to a landfill, saving approximately 2 tons of waste.
In addition to helping individual students as they request laptops, we recently equipped the STEAM lab at Buzz Aldrin Middle School with 25 MacBook Pro laptops. We also upgraded the technology lab at Frank J. Napier, Jr. school in Paterson, NJ.  All this tied to your generous support. 

But, we want to do so much more for those in need. The challenges in our and neighboring communities continue, and many students STILL don’t have the tools they need to succeed in school.

So Here is Our Ask

To build programs and support growth in our educational and giving activities, Laptop Upcycle desperately needs to add Volunteers to our team. If you’re reading this, we know you have super powers. You may be a marketing wiz, or a nascent tech nerd, or an expert grant writer. Or perhaps you’re a business development expert who could help us scale up our operation to touch more markets. We’re not looking to monopolize your time, because we know how busy everyone is these days, but if you can give some time, some ideas, or some strategy to an excellent cause we would like to hear from you.

Take the first step. Email us at giveget@laptopupcycle.org

Still looking for a Summer internship or know of a student looking? We have a great opportunity for a High School or local college student. Read about it here.

Thanks

Beginnings of a New Tech Lab in Paterson

5/10/2022

 
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Yesterday on a beautiful Spring day Cynthia and Jon delivered 52 freshly refurbished small form factor i3 desktops to the Frank J. Napier, Jr. school in Paterson, NJ. Principal Derwin Smith and Vice-Principal Jennifer Woods will use the new workstations to both replace the aging XP vintage desktops in their computer lab and update the devices driving the smart boards in classrooms. Cynthia Newlin, Laptop Upcycle Board member and long time volunteer, established the relationship with the technology focused school and has led the way by helping us deliver over 30 laptops two months ago directly to students in need at the school. The updated lab will allow teachers at the school top better support their tech programs at the school.
As always, this was a team effort and we have a number of people and organizations to thank. In addition to the amazing work by Cynthia, we appreciate:
  • The Electronic Access Foundation (EAF) and Greg Campbell for the supply of small footprint devices they shared with us via our partnership within the Digitunity network.
  • Our lab volunteers led by Mike Brown who worked so hard to wipe, renovate, update, and clean the donated desktops, and our technical lead Mark Zbucki who helped us with the updates to support the equipment.
  • Finally, we are exceedingly grateful to Principal Smith and Vice-Principal Woods for being such positive advocates in support of their community and students. We are pleased to work with such powerful leaders of public school education in Northern NJ. Thank you!

Summer Intern Position 2022

4/21/2022

 
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Join Laptop Upcycle as a Summer Intern this Summer and make a difference for young students locally. We are looking for a rising High School Senior or older volunteer to help us expand. Here is the detailed job description:

The successful candidate will work with the Laptop Upcycle Board of Directors to leverage existing promotion and communication channels and explore/develop new tools to expand regional awareness of Laptop Upcycle and promote our mission in three (3) primary areas.
  • Seek out new placement of our free laptops (find students who are in need of laptops and organizations that require larger numbers of machines) to individuals and groups (schools/nonprofits).
  • Locate and energize donations of equipment (laptops) and funds - individual and especially laptop donations from businesses and corporations.
  • Help identify and recruit volunteers to build our internal support organization (find and engage those with interest in our mission).
In this role the intern will also document and report on progress and challenges. They will help instantiate a long term engagement processes (design tools and processes others can use) to support Laptop Upcycles long term growth. This is a communications and networking internship which for the right candidate will be rewarding and provide excellent experience for future opportunities.

We are a 100% volunteer organization, and we can not monetarily compensate you in this role; however, we will provide you with a high quality laptop which you may keep upon the internship completion. Any questions, or to apply for this internship, email us at giveget@laptopupcycle.org.

Back in the Office? Be Like the Boston Consulting Group

3/10/2022

 
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Are you back in the office, at least part time?
That's great!

Did your IT department set you up with a new laptop?
 Awesome!

What do you reckon will happen to your existing (old) one?

Here's an idea. A number of local companies, large and small,  have made a difference by donating their prior stock to Laptop Upcycle. Like Laptop Legend Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Summit, NJ, who donated 52 Lenovo Thinkpads (left) today, your company could:
  • Be assured of secure destruction of the data (or you can donate them sans drives)
  • Direct your old tech to a local student who really needs it for school
  • Demonstrate its commitment to tech education and your community

Be Like BCG.
Contact your IT Department.

Send them a link to this page where they may also see the details of our donation (Give) process (follow the link). If they have any more questions, we're happy to answer them. They can email us and we will set up a call and a pick up.


Read About Us in My Suburban Essex

3/2/2022

 
MIke and his team have been busy in the lab. Read about us here in this month's issue of My Suburban Essex!
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National IT asset reselling podcast features Laptop Upcycle

2/26/2022

 
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Have you thought about how Laptop Upcycle gets So. Many. Laptops? Individual donations from generous and thoughtful community members are important (please keep ‘em coming) but there’s a reuse “pipeline” that contributes quite a bit.

Companies like Essence Global Advertising, BCG, Celonis and Pfizer choose to donate their laptops when they’re “retired” and we’re exceedingly grateful for their support of our underprivileged students. Companies, from Tier 1 to small businesses, make up a significant IT equipment repurposing cycle. As computer equipment such as laptops, desktops, servers, tablets, etc. (termed collectively as “IT assets”) are no longer needed, there is a nationwide reseller industry that evaluates them (called “grading”) for any retained value and remarkets them. Not only is this a green initiative but there is almost always a market for a functioning computer somewhere.

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At Laptop Upcycle, we are working to get the attention of corporations and resellers to create a larger laptop inventory feed so that we can continue to expand our program.

That’s why we were so pleased when Doug Green of Telecom Reseller invited us to be on his weekly podcast that showcases news for the corporate IT asset reseller market. 


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Sarah Damaskos, a Laptop Upcycle co-founder and board member, sat down (virtually) to tell the excellent historical and current view of Laptop Upcycle. She also noted the impact of the program, our intentionally-anonymous relationships with individual kids in need, and most importantly, our local approach. 
 

We’d like to thank Telecom Reseller for giving us the airtime to outline Laptop Upcycle’s growth mission in understandable terms that provides listeners a way to help.  

If you know a company -- perhaps yours? -- that’s planning an IT refresh and would like to donate their laptops for PR benefits, tax benefits and big-hearted benefits we want to talk to them! Did we mention benefits?

Thanks for reading, thanks for listening (our first podcast – woo hoo) and thanks for supporting us!


Donate Now

Unwrap a Laptop this Holiday season

12/6/2021

 
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This Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate) Laptop Upcycle wants to put a laptop under the trees of students in need. Laptop Santa knows that students who have their own laptops for school, projects, personalization, ownership and accountability -- use them and succeed!   Throughout December we'd like your help to brighten the Holiday Season for a local student who cannot afford a laptop for school. 

If you know of a middle or high school student who could use a laptop and can't afford it, let us know.  Our elves are standing by to deliver a refurbished and wrapped laptop that's ready to go under the tree. 

You can help! 

1) Identify students who would benefit and appreciate a holiday gift of a laptop by filling in this short form.

2) Donate a laptop (used or new)

3) Donate funds to support this program!

If you have any questions or would like to suggest a partnership or idea, send us an email at giveget@laptopupcycle.org. Deadline:  Dec 22, 2021

Thank you for being a "giver" this holiday season and giving a student in need a laptop to succeed. In the past 5 years Laptop Upcycle has given out over 1000 laptops to low income and special needs students. We'd like to end this year with a mighty Ho ho ho!

The Laptop Upcycle elves

Announcing our partnership with Ramapo College of New Jersey

11/17/2021

 
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We’ve got big, big news! Laptop Upcycle is branching out by rolling out a partnership with Ramapo College of New Jersey! 

The mission remains the same: eliminating obstacles to ensure students have the tools they need to succeed in their academic careers.

Dr. Susan Gaulden, Interim Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs at Ramapo College, says, “We are truly excited about and committed to our partnership with Laptop Upcycle, as the initiative will ensure our students are able to secure the technology they need in order to have the best possible academic experience and the greatest chance of academic success.”

Kicking off “Laptop Upcycle @ Ramapo” is a drive to solicit donations of used, working laptops. The entire program is student-oriented and student-driven: Ramapo Social Work students are helping to organize operations of the program and trained Student Assistants will make repairs and refurbishments.


Read the Ramapo College's press release
Visit the Laptop Upcycle @ Ramapo webpage
Support Laptop Upcycle @ Ramapo’s Fall 2021 Donation Drive (Nov. 16, 18, 19)

Locally, everything works the same. If you have a laptop to donate here in Montclair or nearby, just start an equipment donation here and we will set up an easy pickup or drop off (Or, consider a monetary donation to Laptop Upcycle to help us expand our program locally and regionally.) And our student intern program in the Lab continues to meet on Tuesdays and Sundays. Join the Laptop Upcycle Lab Facebook group to stay up to date or grab a spot for a lab session here.

Please join the Laptop Upcycle Board in welcoming Ramapo College to the Laptop Upcycle family! We could not be more thrilled about this new partnership.
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