While on vacation in China, Pat Furr’s tour guide said that the Chinese tell their students they need to be proficient in two things to succeed in the future—English and computers. This comment stuck with Furr and led her to develop a successful computer renovating organization in Chico, Calif.
“I realized that in America we had very few computers in schools at that time, so I decided to refurbish donated computers and give them to the schools,” Furr said.
In 1993, she got Chico Unified School District to work with her and become a part of her dream, and she started Computers for Classrooms.
In the 21 schools comprising CUSD, there were only about 600 computers in all compared to over 6,000 today, she said.
In 2002, Furr decided to supply computers to low-income families and nonprofits as well, in hopes that everyone will be able to have access to computers, technology and the internet.
A lot of people everyday stop by with equipment for the program, Furr said.
“The past few years we have been placing 5,000 computers per year in schools with non-profits and low-income families,” she said.
The program is run throughout California and is currently sending out 260 computers to middle schools in San Diego and LA. They will be working with Computers for Youth to train parents how to help their children do homework on the computer.
This will really impact the middle school students and their ability to do homework, Furr said.
On top of trying to connect people with technology, they are also working hard to reuse everything that gets sent in.
“Everyone assumes that recycling is great, but that is not true for electronics,” she said “By extending the life of technology, we lessen the need for creating new systems, and the greatest energy expenditure comes during the building of the new product.”
Reusing 100 computers is equivalent to removing 48 passenger cars from the road per year and it saves enough electricity to power 68 U.S. households in a year, she said.
“Reusing is 25 times better for our environment than recycling,” Furr said. “Reduce, reuse and then recycle.
Computers for Classrooms provides incentives for volunteers who devote their time to being a part of this program. The organization has about 40 volunteers that work there a week.
“If volunteers work for 50 hours, they can get a free computer or a laptop,” Furr said. “We have them working on computers, so they also get to learn a lot at the same time.”
Furr’s program has been so prosperous that she was hired by Microsoft last year when the company saw the manual she had made for creating a successful computer reuse program. She created a complete series of PowerPoint presentations and programs with several photographs showing you exactly how to do a complete refurnishing operation, so that Microsoft could create a similar program and give free computers to people in third world countries that really need them.
“They tested the material out in Kenya and Uganda and they had really good reports come back, she said. “They didn’t have anything negative to say.”
The organization also performs studies to find out the importance of computers for students. Last year they worked with Butte College to study how having a home computer can help minority students succeed in school. They came to find that it made a huge difference.
This year they are doing a one-year study with Chico Middle schools and the freshman class at Chico Senior, as well as working with Rob Fairly of UC Santa Cruz to study the effects of having a home computer.
“It’s kind of exciting that we can do these studies that are UC California approved,” Furr said. “Studies that can have national significance.”
Furr’s main goal is to “close the digital divide” and place systems with those least likely to have them.
“I passionately believe that everyone needs access to technology and the Internet,” she said. “It isn’t fair for students to compete for college scholarships or grades when some can afford to have computers at home while others can’t. It would be my hope to have access to computers and the Internet for everyone.”
If you have a computer you’d like to donate, drop it off at Computers for Classrooms anywhere from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information on the program or to become a volunteer contact Furr at 530-895-4175.
- Kayla Cook
