No. 19 Vol. 10
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Give Technology of Denville Gifts Technology to the Community
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by Steve Sears obert Boyle and Jennifer Faliveno both knew that, when older laptop computers are committed to scrap heaps, there’s possibly more use in them. So, they formed Give Technology, where used laptop computers are donated and refurbished for others to use. “I’ve been in technology for my entire life,” Boyle says. “Even before I was even a teenager, I was working with computers. I’ve always kind of helped people who needed help with old computers. I’ve donated them to people, or found homes for old computers that clients are getting rid of, but never as a formal entity. It was all just kind of helping people out.” The story continues with Faliveno, who has been teaching at Denville’s Valleyview Middle School for 22 years, and five years ago started doing more online classes. She noticed there was a big disparity as far as kids who had the ability and technology to work from home and those who didn’t. “She found that a number of families just didn’t have computers at home or didn’t have internet,” Boyle says, “and so she would ask me, ‘I have this kid in my class who doesn’t have a computer. Do you
have an old computer that I can give them?’ At one point, we started to kind of collect them and gather things from clients and from just people we knew in the community.” Shortly thereafter, Give Technology, a 501c3, was officially formed. Per Boyle, who is also CEO of Newton -based Planet Networks (Faliveno is an Education Technology Specialist at the same company) there are three parts to the Give Technology program. “One is, from an environmental standpoint, we’re keeping older computers from being dismantled and destroyed. The best thing from an environmental standpoint to certainly an economic standpoint is to reuse something rather than recycling. That’s one side of it. The other is we’re helping people who need access to technology to work or to be able to go to school or just learn
about it, and doing that in a way that there’s no cost to any of the recipients.” The third benefit is to the giver. “A lot of people who are more well off than most of our recipients have an extra computer in a closet or have some old laptops in desk drawers. They got a new computer and they threw the old one in the drawer and it just sits there. We’re putting that stuff to use, and either preserving the data for the people and giving them back the drive, or we’re destroying the data so that they know that their stuff isn’t falling into the wrong hands. At the same time, we’re teaching kids - sometimes adults, but mostly kids - how to work on computers and how to repair and replace things to kind of get a longer service life, and also to give them some useful skills that they can use to either supplement their income in college or potentially have this as a career.”
In addition to laptops, Give Technology has also received networking equipment like servers, switches, routers and more, and older desktop computers, which normally aren’t as useful as laptops, and therefore wind up being recycled. “But a laptop,” Boyle confirms, “even an older laptop, like something that has Windows 7 on it, is still quite useful.” Recipients of the refurbished laptops indeed do benefit, but Give Technology as the middle guy and the giver do so as well. “It’s really a great symbiotic relationship where everyone benefits from it,” Boyle says. “There’s really no downside to any part of it, which is nice. It just a requires a lot of coordination and a lot of time, but you’re helping people, so it’s worth it.” For more information, visit www.givetechnology. org.
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