Kokua Line
Kokua Line
School programs happy
to get computers
past their primeQuestion: Whom can I call to donate my old computer to a school?
Answer: First of all, mark Oct. 26 on your calendar.
That's when the city's recycling office, working with different businesses and government agencies, is coordinating a computer recycling drop-off day. More on that later.
It turns out there are many businesses and organizations trying to hook up kids and classrooms with computers other people don't want and this is a good time to update some of our outdated information.
The city is currently working to coordinate a one-stop Internet site for people to get information about where they can donate computers and what various groups and schools are looking for.
STAR-BULLETIN /1999
David Pearl and Kevin Hamacek worked on one of the computers donated to Kalaheo High School by the Navy.
An umbrella Web site, Kidsdotcom, providing "links to all the existing programs," will be set up next month, said Manny Menendez, executive director of the city Office of Economic Development. About 20 groups are involved, including the military, he said.
An announcement will be made when that site is up and running. Until then, for more information, call 547-7878.
In the meantime:
>> The Department of Education puts used computers into the hands of school kids with Juliet Begley, in the governor's office, coordinating the state effort (call 586-0293).
The DOE basically is accepting only Pentium 1 computers "or better" and they have to be in working condition, according to Begley.
Once computers are accepted and transportation arranged (again with services volunteered by different businesses and groups), they are distributed to about 15 schools statewide, said Kerry Koide, an educational specialist with the DOE's Advanced Technology Research office.
Students in those schools learn how to do computer repairs using the donated computers, which are then distributed to classrooms and individual students, including on the neighbor islands, Koide said. Even though the computers are worked on by the students, he emphasized that the computers should be in "reasonably acceptable" condition -- they shouldn't be junk.
"We want the students to learn how to fix them, how to configure and set up, then get them out to the schools," Koide said. "In fact, we have an instructional program that allows students to get a national certification on computer repair. So even if (the computers) are working, we still make (students) go through the process of checking them out, erasing the hard drive ... resetting them up with an operating system."
>> The Hawaii Computers For Kids Program, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Metropolitan Honolulu, works with the state and city, as well as with the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools; state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism; Tech Corps Hawaii; and Helping Hands Hawaii.
To arrange a donation for Hawaii Computer For Kids, call Helping Hands Hawaii (843-8473); Computer-Aided Technologies International (521-2259 or e-mail cfk@catii.com); or any Metro Rotary member.
The DOE's Koide says different groups "always try to work together" on this effort. "We've been talking to Ken (Goldstein, of Computer-Aided Technologies) and all the other groups all the time ... If (people) want to give computers to Ken, that's fine; if they want to give it to us, that's fine."
>> Leeward Community College's "Everything Old is NEW Again" program takes donated functional computers and recycles them back into the community. Not accepted are MAC platforms, broken hardware and any computers lower than a Pentium processor, said Marianne Luna, of the Office of Continuing Education & Training.
Luna also says the public can bring their computers in to be fixed or upgraded for free (you purchase the necessary hardware/software) as part of Leeward's Bring Your Own Parts program.
For information on either program, call Luna at 455-0662, e-mail her at lunamari@hawaii.edu, or call 455-0477.
Meanwhile, Begley cautions people to carefully consider what they do with their unwanted computers.
If people have something that doesn't work, "we ask that they dispose of them responsibly" because of concern over the lead used in cathode-ray tubes in computer monitors, "and it's really not good to put that in the landfill," Begley said. "So, people should be conscious it's not like getting rid of a refrigerator," she said.
Suzanne Jones, the city's recycling coordinator, agreed that just tossing a computer into the trash is not the best option.
"There have been discussions across the country about the lead in the monitors and some states have moved forward and banned the monitors from disposal. But that's been very few," Jones said, adding she believes that's mainly because there are few alternatives for unusable computers.
"So until we have better alternatives, we don't restrict disposal in Hawaii yet," she said. "But we do want to encourage people to make the extra effort to recycle rather than dispose because it is a better alternative."
Island Recycling (845-1188, 1811 Dillingham Blvd. ) was cited by Begley and Jones as the company most associated with taking nonfunctioning computers. If readers know of other companies, let us know and we'll pass on the information.
However, computer owners who want to get rid of either working or nonworking computers will be able to do so on Oct. 26 at CompUSA at 604 Ala Moana, Jones said. The effort is aimed at home computer owners, not businesses.
"Computers will be 'triaged'" -- the usable ones to be donated to the schools; recyclable ones taken by Island Recycling and "just garbage" to be taken to the dump, she said. "We're hoping to have very little of" the latter, she added.
Jones said the effort will allow organizers also to "quantify" what kind of equipment is brought in, with the possibility of setting up such a drop-off day quarterly.
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Honolulu 96813. As many as possible will be answered.
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