A world wide web of help

Doug Drouillard, the Knights of Columbus chairperson who created the computer drive initiative earlier this year, says he now has six computers in his garage and four more downstairs waiting to be cleaned, reformatted and offered to groups or individuals that can’t necessarily afford a new machine.

“Sometime (this) week, we’ll be delivering a computer to a lady in Blackburn,” Drouillard gives as an example. “She’s 85, and really couldn’t see herself spending the money for a computer.”

Drouillard is organizing workshops where members of the Knights of Columbus, as well as anyone interested in helping out, can gather and refurbish computers that were collected during the April 18 drive.

Grand Knight Réal Thibault says the drive was a tremendous success. “We far exceeded the volume we were expecting.”

He explains a team of volunteers was set up outside the Divine Infant Parish, collecting, sorting and cleaning the computers, while people with technical expertise were inside checking machines, clearing hard drives and installing software.

While some of the donated material was salvaged, a lot simply couldn’t be reused.

“Basically, we got a lot of old equipment; a lot of the ink jet printers, which we’re not encouraging anybody to use because they’re too costly,” Drouillard explains.

Even though Orléans Coun. Bob Monette had donated the use of a van to take this material to recycling facilities in the west end of the city, the volunteers quickly became overwhelmed with the amount of electronic waste that was brought in.

This problem was solved when the Knights of Columbus received a surprise visit from 1-800-Got-Junk?, which was holding its second annual e-waste collection event on the same day and heard about the Knights of Columbus computer drive.

1-800-Got-Junk? brought an empty van – the equivalent of about five pick-up trucks – to the Divine Infant Parish and within minutes, filled it with electronic waste, explains Pierrette Raymond, co-owner of the Ottawa junk removal franchise.

“(1-800-Got-Junk?) came on board and offered to take away some of what we collected and make sure it was properly recycled through a computer recycling facility,” Thibault explains, adding the company helped move about two tonnes of electronic waste.

“They saved us an awful lot of effort and time, and that allowed us to focus on getting more computers into the hands of the needy.”

This partnership with the waste removal company is an example of the overwhelming community response the Knights of Columbus have received so far for this ongoing initiative.

Thibault says computer company experts have volunteered time to give them some guidance, while local high schools have expressed some interest in helping as well. The Knights of Columbus have established a partnership with the Orléans-Cumberland Community Resource Centre, which is finding homes for the computers, while National Capital FreeNet is arranging for Internet access, Thibault continues.

He estimates they’ve already donated about 20 refurbished computers to the community, all of them running on Linux, a free, open-source operating system.

Drouillard says they will soon apply to Microsoft for an accreditation status that would allow them to install Windows at a reduced cost on the refurbished computers.

For now, he says the Knights of Columbus have received enough computers to keep the members busy with refurbishing for a while, but are still looking at developing new partnerships and opportunities, such as providing computers to former inmates, for example.