Thanksgiving Thanks from the Laptop Lab

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. :)

Donate