Both Bethesda Boys Ranch and the Tulsa Computer Society are 501(c)(3) non profit organizations, but it appears that it would be easier to get the necessary grants if we form a new non profit organization whose primary purpose was focused on Computer Refurbishing, and various other programs which flow from or support such a purpose. That is how the idea for HelpingTulsa was formed. HelpingTulsa would include key people from both Bethesda Boys Ranch and Tulsa Computer Society among its directors, and we would anticipate that the new organization would maintain close liaison relations with both BBR and TCS.
It appears that God liked our idea, because less than a week after we decided we were going to form HelpingTulsa I received word that there were about 50 pallets of computers available in Texas, many of them still in the original manufacturer’s boxes available for us to start working with (original cost over $1Million, and current value about $200K). I always knew that He would provide whatever we needed, and that if we were thirsty we could drink from His garden hose. This was my first exposure to drinking from a fire hose, but we commenced running as fast as we could to be ready for the bounty He was providing. We scheduled a truck to go down to Texas on Thursday, April 25 to load those 50 pallets of computers, plus another 50 pentium computers we found from another source, and it will be bringing them back up to Tulsa on Friday, April 26. But where would we put them when they got here?
Our immediate need was for about 3,000 sq ft of warehouse space to hold the equipment we will be bringing up from Texas, and permit us to set up work areas where we can go through the equipment to see what works and what needs fixing. We contacted several real estate agents to see if they could find some vacant warehouse where the owner would be willing to provide us with free rent for six months while we applied for grants to support HelpingTulsa, with the intention that we would then lease or buy the warehouse space when we had the money. Several leads looked promising but nothing ever materialized other than one which was available for just one month (far too short a period of time to apply for and receive grants, and the warehouse was committed for another short term use after the month, so we would have had to move everything even if we could get the grants). For several days it looked like we were going to be able to use a fire station that had been vacant for a year, but at the last minute another government agency decided they had a use for the property. But as the saying goes "When God Closes a Door, He Opens a Window...".
Katy Jones at Glory House suggested we call Tulsa Cornerstone Assistance Network and they were very helpful, providing us with warehouse space to unload and go through the donation, and we will be setting up a Computer Refurbishing operation there, and also a classroom which we can use to teach various hands-on classes.
The initial offer of about 50 pallets of material was very generous, but by the time we got there it had grown to 65 pallets for us, plus we found another source for 35 machines from the Dallas area, and because of the very Christian behaviour of our people in loading both our donation and that of another organization that was getting an equal amount from the same donor, we were rewarded with even more spare parts that were not included on the inventory. To see some pictures of the loading and unloading, take a look at http://helpingtulsa.org/pictures/index.htm.
Unloading, inventorying, and doing an initial checkout of all of the donated material was a major effort, but The Lord provided a number of very good workers, including Jim Erwin, Jim's pastor and a couple of men from his church, plus several boys from Bethesda Boys Ranch, Carole Brown, several of Carole's friends, and Jerri Ann Hearod.
We have committed to providing 5 to 10 computers to Katy Jones at Glory House (a temporary Christian shelter for homeless women in Tulsa), and 20 computers to Belarus (Russia) to augment 100 we already sent them, but I am sure that we will have plenty of machines available for other school, church, or nonprofit agencies, both in Tulsa and elsewhere in the world, so if you need some computers please go to http://helpingtulsa.org/request.htm and fill out a request.
Helping Tulsa's primary task, and the one which will be the initial focus of effort, will be Refurbishing Computers but we also plan to address Training and Recycling
In the area of Computer Training we propose to teach people to repair computers, and then give them an opportunity to work on refurbishing computers at our facility, where they would learn enough to be able to get a job in a computer store or set up their own refurbishing computers project within their own church or nonprofit agency. Our variation of the old Chineese proverb about teaching a man to fish is “Fix an old computer for a man and he will have a computer that will fill his needs for a while. Teach a man to fix computers and he will have a computer for the rest of his life, and he can fix computers for his friends and neighbors.” If a church, school, or non-profit agency asks for more than 10 computers from us, we strongly urge them to send someone to work with us, and learn how we work on computers, so that they can maintain the computers we give them, and so that they might do their own computer refurbishing.
We envision that we would offer classes for people who were out of work, and needing to learn a skill to be able to get a job. We also envision offering classes for kids who are out of school and needing something to do, and classes for retired people looking for something to do. The classes would be for free, but the students would be expected to commit to spending a certain number of hours working on refurbishing computers for other people. At the end of their training they would be given an opportunity to build a computer from spare parts, and that computer would be their own computer which they could take home with them.
We also plan to use some of the refurbished computers to set up a hands on training room where we could offer classes in various computer programs, to help poor people who can’t afford to attend commercial training classes, but where they could learn enough to be able to get a job in an office.
Computer Recycling is the third focus of HelpingTulsa. Computer Monitors contain a lot of lead, and although it is still legal in Oklahoma to put monitors in landfills, at some time that lead will leach out and enter the water table. The government may make it illegal to dispose of them in landfills, but they will still need an alternative, and as far as we have been able to determine, the closest companies that will take dead monitors, even for a $6 or $8 charge, are in Georgia. We need something in the Oklahoma area that will do an environmentally safe disposal of dead monitors, and although it is not an area we will focus on initially, we hope to develop some resources in Oklahoma for reclaiming as much recyclable material (metal, glass, plastic, etc) as possible, and provide environmentally safe disposal of whatever cannot be recycled.
For more information see http://helpingtulsa.org or email don@helpingtulsa.org.
We would like to form a Board of Advisors consisting of key people from various large corporations in the Tulsa area who might, from time to time, have computers which they can provide to HelpingTulsa, so that we can show them the procedures we use to wipe the hard drives of all used machines which we receive, to make sure that the donors information is not on the computers we provide to schools, churches, and nonprofit agencies, and the selection procedures we use to determine good homes for equipment which we receive, and so that they can advise us on any other procedures we might need to adopt so that they might be able to provide us with their surplus computer equipment.
We are also interested in establishing relationships with other non-profit organizations in the area, both other groups doing computer refurbishing, where we might be able to share parts, machines to work on, and ideas on how to do the work, and groups serving people with various needs, since we might be able to provide computers to help them do their job better.