Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 24, 1995 TAG: 9505240042
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Deep in the bowels of a shuttered Salem electronics factory, a dozen retirement-age men work miracles for the next generation.
Bent over work tables, they refurbish obsolete computers for use in schools. Old hardware flickers back to life here. The showpiece model, kept on hand for testing, is an original IBM Personal Computer, circa 1981.
"They work perfectly fine. They're just slower," said Bob Gasparoli, who believes most of the refurbished units still have 10 to 20 years of life left.
The hands twisting the screwdrivers belong to members of the Elfun Society's local chapter, all of whom are retired engineers from GE Drive Systems in Salem. GE provided the workshop, really just a corner of its little-used plant number 2 in West Salem.
The society has serviced nearly 600 computers donated in the past two years by GE, First Union Corp. and Shenandoah Life Insurance Co. Public and private schools and nonprofit organizations use them now.
Based on the success of past efforts, the Elfun Society, Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Salem-Roanoke County chamber plan on Friday officially to ask all Roanoke-area businesses to donate computer equipment they no longer use.
The goal is 2,000 units, or one for every five Roanoke-area students, said Bud Oakey, a chamber spokesman. Computers also will continue to be distributed to nonprofit groups whose efforts are at least partly educational.
Those spearheading the program, called the Roanoke School Technology Upgrade Drive, expect a good response.
And why not? By one estimate, about half of the 4 million computers in the world are being replaced or soon will be, as their owners purchase newer systems. That's according to Scott Hensley, assistant manager of Trade America, a Salem business that buys, reconditions and sells used computers.
Donated computers are good for a tax deduction, with the amount left up to the donor, an IRS official said.
"You're not going to get questioned unless it looks really out of line," said Wilson Fadely, spokesman for the tax agency. "An old computer is not going to bring that much."
The Elfun Society's computer hospital opened in 1993 in member Tom Blakley's garage in Salem, but later moved. "It got so cold in the winter, the computers wouldn't work," Blakley said.
In connection with a major computer donation by First Union, the group moved to the bank's offices for a time, before getting the space made available by GE.
The 12-person group is a chapter of a company-recognized club through which GE retirees place investments in mutual funds and take on community-service projects benefiting schools, senior citizens, health care causes and more.
Its members meet as a group for computer fix-it sessions - rather than individual members taking computers home - because they like the camaraderie and "no one of us knows everything," Blakley said. "It's a team."
Current GE employees play a pivotal role, as they train club members in computer disciplines and help keep donated units running. Many employees have agreed to help the schools near where they live.
School officials are overjoyed. "We have a couple machines in every classroom," said Diane Washenberger, principal at G.W. Carver Elementary School in Salem. More than half of the school's roughly 50 computers were donated.
To make a donation, call the Roanoke chamber at 983-0700.
by CNB