May 14, 2020, Sooke BC: Schools have closed, and education has moved online for thousands of students, Sooke to Port Renfrew, due to COVID-19. If you are looking for ways to give back to your community during the Covid-19 crisis, this may be an option for you.
Better Together Sooke Region Chamber of Commerce Laptop Drive, with the Hewlett Packard (HP) Refresh Program provides you a way to donate your unloved, unused, dust-collecting laptops to students, who can really use them.
Sooke Region Chamber of Commerce is hosting a Better Together Sooke Region Chamber of Commerce Laptop Drive to collect laptops you no longer need. Hewlett-Packard is providing the software for this initiative free through their Community Activation Plan, and WebMax.ca has volunteered their services to the Sooke Region Chamber of Commerce to facilitate the sanitizing and reformatting of the devices. Visit https://www.sookeregionchamber.com/ for detailed information if you have a laptop or if you are a student in need of a laptop.
“This is for Sooke region students who now have to do their schoolwork remotely,” said Karen Mason, the Sooke Region Chamber of Commerce President. “Some homes now have increased demands on computer use. Others may have surplus computers they are not using. We are doing this drive to see if we can move the surplus over to where the need is greater.”
Any laptop that is less than 10 years old, windows-based (not Linux or MAC), with its power cord, and powers up, it can be refreshed and given to a student.
- If you have an unused laptop stashed away, donate it to the Better Together Sooke Region Laptop Drive. These devices do not have to be fancy; they just have to turn on (boot), be less than 10 years old, not Linux or MAC, and have a power cord.
- HP Refresh Software (https://enable.hp.com/hp-refresh) is used to securely wipe data from all devices and re-image the devices by installing browser-based software. If you choose to erase data and install the software at your own location, follow the HP Refresh Software instructions found on the HP Refresh website under HP Refresh Software and Support.
- Complete the form and we will provide you with a drop off date for the Better Together Sooke Region Laptop Drive. An HP representative will erase the data from the laptops and install the browser-based software.
“Help us spread the word,” says Mason. “If you know any families or individuals that have unused laptops to donate, tell them to fill out the form on the Chamber website. And if you know of a student in need, send them to that website as well!”
To DONATE a Laptop: If you have an extra laptop to donate, complete the form at https://www.sookeregionchamber.com/laptop-refresh-drive/
To REGISTER for a Laptop: If your student needs a laptop, complete the form at https://www.sookeregionchamber.com/laptop-refresh-drive/. First-come-first served and is entirely dependent on the number of laptops received and viable for refresh.
