NFTE Computer Theft-Rebuild/Refurb
Donation protected
Theft in Estudillo Estates deprives Bay Area students in underserved communities access to much needed technology.
Last Sunday March 5th, in the middle of the night our home was robbed.
Fortunately, they did not gain access to the inside of our home, but they did break into the storage pod that was directly placed in front our house as we were having some work done inside.
The thieves made away with many personal items (they even took my darn Halloween Decorations!!) and although my family is saddened, upset, and more than a little shaken by this violation and the deep sentimental loss of our personal items here’s the part that really sucks….
48 laptops in *really heavy* traveling cases were stolen from the pod
We were staging them for use the following days for training sessions for low income students here in the most underserved parts of the Bay Area, through the organization my wife works for: The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) - https://www.nfte.com/what/mission
For those who are unfamiliar with our mission at NFTE - we provide programs for students from low income urban communities a pathway to stay in school and also find careers through the principles of entrepreneurship.
Dawn was the former Business and Entrepreneurship Instructor at San Leandro High School and was also NFTE’s Inaugural “International Teacher of the Year”. Through NFTE, Dawn taught countless San Leandro High School students, and many of those students have won or placed highly in national competitions throughout the years due to her instruction. She chose to work for this non-profit, to help more teachers and students around Northern California.
http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/04/08/san-leandro-teacher-aids-homeless-student-with-award-money/
So why are we posting this?
We are reaching out to the community, both individuals and local businesses to help support these young students. If you have a working laptop, or know of someone who does, or your employer has any sort of donation program for decommissioned laptops, we're all ears.
The units we lost were a combination of Macbooks, MacBook Air’s and PC Laptops. All were approximately 4-7 years old and we’re hoping to find *working* replacements of similar age & specs.
This is a crippling loss at present, because trainings are most active during the next few months until the end of the school year. These kids that the organization reaches are amazing; their thirst and desire to “rise up” from these communities by embracing the entrepreneurial mindset are now cut off from the technology and tools they need most.
These laptops being donated and/ or purchased will directly go to assist urban students. As a non-profit, any donations made we can offer you a charitable donation form for tax deduction purposes.
Our local neighbors have been great, our professional contacts in the AV industry as well, and at this point we have over 20 used laptops committed from people in the community who are bringing them to us a few at a time. SAP in Palo Alto has generously donated 17 decommissioned laptops as well, that need cords, and memory upgrades... but such good news.... if all the commitments come in we are almost to our replacement goal of 48 computers
This gofundme is to pay for chargers, cases, rolling storage with padlocks and additional memory and ram for the donated computers. If we go over our amount, we will purchase additional computers from a www.GreenCitizen.com, a socially responsible entreprenurial organization that recycles electronics in the Bay Area and has reached out. They are charging us only for the parts they need to get computers working, donating free labor, and free computers from their corporate partners.
Thank you in advance for any consideration.
Richard & Dawn Fregosa
PS - San Leandro PD has been wonderful, and they are doing everything they can to try to track down the perpetrators but there’s very little information to go on, as there was no useful evidence or surveillance camera information that would lead us to believe that we will recover the items.
Last Sunday March 5th, in the middle of the night our home was robbed.
Fortunately, they did not gain access to the inside of our home, but they did break into the storage pod that was directly placed in front our house as we were having some work done inside.
The thieves made away with many personal items (they even took my darn Halloween Decorations!!) and although my family is saddened, upset, and more than a little shaken by this violation and the deep sentimental loss of our personal items here’s the part that really sucks….
48 laptops in *really heavy* traveling cases were stolen from the pod
We were staging them for use the following days for training sessions for low income students here in the most underserved parts of the Bay Area, through the organization my wife works for: The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) - https://www.nfte.com/what/mission
For those who are unfamiliar with our mission at NFTE - we provide programs for students from low income urban communities a pathway to stay in school and also find careers through the principles of entrepreneurship.
Dawn was the former Business and Entrepreneurship Instructor at San Leandro High School and was also NFTE’s Inaugural “International Teacher of the Year”. Through NFTE, Dawn taught countless San Leandro High School students, and many of those students have won or placed highly in national competitions throughout the years due to her instruction. She chose to work for this non-profit, to help more teachers and students around Northern California.
http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/04/08/san-leandro-teacher-aids-homeless-student-with-award-money/
So why are we posting this?
We are reaching out to the community, both individuals and local businesses to help support these young students. If you have a working laptop, or know of someone who does, or your employer has any sort of donation program for decommissioned laptops, we're all ears.
The units we lost were a combination of Macbooks, MacBook Air’s and PC Laptops. All were approximately 4-7 years old and we’re hoping to find *working* replacements of similar age & specs.
This is a crippling loss at present, because trainings are most active during the next few months until the end of the school year. These kids that the organization reaches are amazing; their thirst and desire to “rise up” from these communities by embracing the entrepreneurial mindset are now cut off from the technology and tools they need most.
These laptops being donated and/ or purchased will directly go to assist urban students. As a non-profit, any donations made we can offer you a charitable donation form for tax deduction purposes.
Our local neighbors have been great, our professional contacts in the AV industry as well, and at this point we have over 20 used laptops committed from people in the community who are bringing them to us a few at a time. SAP in Palo Alto has generously donated 17 decommissioned laptops as well, that need cords, and memory upgrades... but such good news.... if all the commitments come in we are almost to our replacement goal of 48 computers
This gofundme is to pay for chargers, cases, rolling storage with padlocks and additional memory and ram for the donated computers. If we go over our amount, we will purchase additional computers from a www.GreenCitizen.com, a socially responsible entreprenurial organization that recycles electronics in the Bay Area and has reached out. They are charging us only for the parts they need to get computers working, donating free labor, and free computers from their corporate partners.
Thank you in advance for any consideration.
Richard & Dawn Fregosa
PS - San Leandro PD has been wonderful, and they are doing everything they can to try to track down the perpetrators but there’s very little information to go on, as there was no useful evidence or surveillance camera information that would lead us to believe that we will recover the items.
Organizer
Dawn Whitney Fregosa
Organizer
San Leandro, CA