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Do you have a "sick or unwanted" computer? Brother Grand Knights Council 7873 has recently commenced a program of taking in older computers, refurbishing them, and then making them available to the Community Resource Centres (CRC). Though this is in the initial stages, and there are many possible problems ahead, our Brother Knights believe that our Lord would not appreciate our communities throwing good computers in the garbage when there are others who might meaningfully be able to benefit from their use. Council 7873 hopes to very soon have public announcements of this partnership between Bloom Microtech (an Ottawa Take it Back dealer), the CRC of Orleans and Gloucester, and the Council. But in starting this program, they have already seen one benefit: one of our Ottawa Knights was in need of a computer, and asked the Council for a donation. It was happily agreed to by the Grand Knight (GK) and Council, and such a computer is now being re-fitted with special software to address his medical needs. Our Brother Knight was overjoyed at this response; he presented a special statue of the Virgin Mary to the Council. The point of this story: if you have any members who are in need, please contact Council 7873 through the good offices of the GK, and they will do whatever they can to accommodate very quickly. Or if you know of a family that has such a need, please do the same. Finally, please ask within your Council for members to make any castoff computers and related equipment (but not printers, cellphones, etc) available to Council 7873 – what is not serviceable will be torn apart and taken to recycling. (Additional note: CRT monitors can only be accepted when we have identified each recipient – by their nature they require a special and costly disposal process if not usable, which Council 7873 cannot afford, nor do they have the space until the computers are about ready to go out to a recipient – sorry.) And now for the commercial message: anyone wanting a second computer for their home and would like to get one of these, the price is a $35 donation to the program's to cover operational costs. However, if a Brother Knight cannot afford one, then there is no cost. There is yet another way Brother Knights can assist in this initiative, if any of your members have experience or is will to learn how to overhaul and rebuild a computer there are welcome to assist at upcoming workshops to be held at Divine Infant Council. I ask that you inform your membership in hopes that they too may benefit from this program. Regards Réal Thibault
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