On March 24, 2015, a team of six volunteers from Ed Tech of WNY descended on a modest house at 595 Sycamore Street in Buffalo, NY to update a computer lab. This house is one of, now four houses, rescued from demolition by the None Like You, We Care Outreach organization founded by Elizabeth Triggs. Among the many things None Like You does for the East Side community, rehabbing houses that the city of Buffalo would have otherwise demolished is perhaps the most impactful. These houses are not just given over to a member of the community they are as part of that agreement used to better the lives of everyone in the community. The 595 Sycamore residence, for instance, houses a computer lab that avails access to technology for students to do their homework, for seniors who need access to computers and the Internet to pay bills, look up information, Etc. and to other members of the local community who don’t have access to computers or Internet service. This access to technology and information from the Internet is something that many take for granted but many others simply can’t afford or don’t have the knowhow to utilize successfully. These are all things that, in today’s world, have become necessities, not just “nice to haves”.
The computer lab was originally funded by a grant Mrs. Triggs was able to get several years ago, but over the years the computers have aged and deteriorated. In fact of the original eight PC’s only two were fully functional and able to get access to the Internet. The organization was in dire need of some IT help and that’s where the Ed Tech’ers come in. The team, made up primarily of Catholic Health associates, came armed with a truck load of computer equipment, donated by Ed Tech of WNY.
Pictured from L to R Carl Cheathm, Isaac Dixon, Mark Martin, Jeramy Wasner and George Condoyannis.
Not pictured is James Lis.
They started by stabilizing and securing the network, backing up data and ripping out the old PC’s and CRT monitors. Next came installing the new PC’s and 19” LCD monitors and configuring all the PC’s to print properly. Finally the backed up data from the old computers was restored to the new PC’s. Once finished here the group moved to a second location at 276 Southampton and repeated the process for the lab at this site.
By the end of the day the team delivered and installed 12 computers and a laptop running Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010 as well as other peripherals and cleaned up the existing networks, securing the wireless networks at both sites. A like number of old PC’s and CRT monitors where removed for recycling making sure that nothing ended up in a landfill. This left Mrs. Triggs and the None Like You, We Care Outreach organization once again fully able to provide access to technology and the Internet to those in need in their local community.
For more information on the None Like You, We Care Outreach organization visit their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/None-Like-YouWe-Care-Outreach/85615820963 . Ed Tech of WNY is proud to be able to help this non-profit and looks forward to being able to help them with other projects in the future.