Homewood company collects & repairs old computers, donates them to children
HOMEWOOD, Ala (WBMA) — Students will start receiving assignments as the school year continues at home.
To help with the transition, BTS Technologies in Homewood is refurbishing donated computers and giving them to children in need .
"We're just asking people to bring us their old computers, in some cases where we are, we're mixing and matching parts to make a working computer out of potentially two broken computers," BTS Technologies president Roger Wentowski said. "We're wiping them clean, disinfecting them and we're installing a new operating system on them."
Wentowski says the idea started after he received an email from a friend who needed computers for his children to do school work at home.
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"At that time it occurred to me that if this friend of mine didn't have enough devices for his family, there was probably many other families as well," he said.
With help from the community, Wentowski says he’s collected about 100 laptops and computers so far but he says he’s gotten more than 100 requests from parents.
"We definitely have a waiting list that is around 100 people," he said. "I think it's mostly that people were caught off guard because we're seeing this kind of catch people at all socio-economic levels."
James story dropped off three laptops Sunday.
"I had them sitting in my office for a few years and I was like well here's the perfect way to get rid of them but also I'm a teacher and I was like, hey students need the technology," he said.
Story says with time left in the school year, he supports what can help a student be successful.
"Especially for what we're having to do, just having anything is better than nothing," he said.
There are designated drop off and pickup times. Instead of calling BTS you can find everything online.
