Since February 1997 the Tulsa Computer Society has operated a Computer Refurbishing Project. Initially we used space at Tulsa International — Spartan School of Aeronautics Hanger 5, provided by the Tulsa Air & Space Museum. In July 1997 we moved to Bethesda Boys Ranch (now called Bethesda Adult Life Training Center), located at 17424 S Union Street in Mounds. From that time until 2002 we worked in three different locations, all at Bethesda Boys Ranch, and while we definitely appreciated the facilities we have used at Bethesda, we have found that it is hard to get volunteers and donors to make the 30 to 45 minute drive to Mounds. Therefore we decided we needed a building in Tulsa which will be much more convenient to both volunteers and donors, and we hope to be able to get grants to enable us to lease such a building.

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 to finance building rental, insurance, utilities, and other expenses 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 will include key people from both Bethesda Boys Ranch and Tulsa Computer Society among its directors, and we would anticipate that the new organization will 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 nearly 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 thursty we could drink from His garden hose. This is my first exposure to drinking from a fire hose, but we began running as fast as we could to be ready for the bounty He is providing. By the time we sent a truck going down to Texas on Thursday, April 25 to load those 50 pallets of computers, the load had changed to 65 pallets, plus another 50 pentium computers we found from another source, plus several other donations (office equipment, restaurant equipment, and an old car which were specifically for Bethesda Boys Ranch), and by the time the truck got to Texas the load had expanded to three trailer loads (when God provides, He Provides. Two trailer loads were driven back to Tulsa late on Friday, April 26, and we sent a tractor down to Texas on Monday, April 29, to pick up the third trailer.

We figured our immediate need was for about 3,000 sq ft of warehouse space to hold the equipment 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, and we were able to arrange for space with Cornerstone Assistance Network, a faith based organization formed to connect and equip a network of churches and ministries to help families transition off welfare and/or out of poverty through the love and compassion of Jesus Christ.

The space Cornerstone provided was very helpful, but it currently is not that secure, but some very good friends helped me clear out my garage and storage shed where we will put some of the stuff we are working on, and I have rented space in one of the nearby mini storage locations for a secure, yet readily accessable, storage area for the machines we have refurbished, until they are delivered to the schools, churches, and non profit agencies we will eventually donate them to.

We started on Saturday, April 27, moving the laptops to my house, and apparently God decided to test us to see how quickly we could respond, because we learned that there was a missionary leaving for Nicaragua on May 1 and she needed a laptop. In one day we went through 29 laptops, and found three that worked (so we passed the test, and she got her laptop), and I have 26 to try to see how many I can get working.

As I write this we have volunteers down at Cornerstone going through the other boxes to see what is in them, and they will be moving desktops, servers, and monitors to my house and/or the rented mini storage that need refurbishing, while Bruce Carson, Jennifer McNamara, and I work on an Access Database to track all of this inventory.

If anyone is interested in volunteering time to assist, and learn how to refurbish computers, I expect to set up several refurbishing areas in my home and we can work just about any time, either during the day, or in the evening. Just call me at 622-3417 or email me to schedule a work session.

We have committed to providing 5 to 10 desktop computers to Katy Jones at Glory House (a temporary Christian shelter for homeless women in Tulsa), and 20 desktop 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.

HelpingTulsa’s primary task, and the one which will be the initial focus of effort, will be Computer Refurbishing but we also plan to address Computer Training and Computer 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 as soon as we can get a classroom set up we will 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. If you want to see pictures of the volunteers processing the two trailer loads of material click here.

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.

For more information on the Tulsa Computer Society click here