News Release
NC State 'Geek-A-Thon' Provides Computers to Disadvantaged Students
Media Contact(s)
Ken Tate, Department of Computer Science, (919) 513-4292
Oct. 3, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
North Carolina State University students and community volunteers will get their geek on for a good cause at Centennial Campus Middle School this weekend.
The Oct. 5-7 Geek-A-Thon, scheduled from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. all three days, pits the computer-savvy students and volunteers with older and out-of-date computers. The volunteers rebuild and refurbish the computers with basic, useful operating systems and software. The newly refurbished computers are then donated to high-achieving but economically disadvantaged middle school students. Organizers expect to donate about 250 computers by the end of the event.
The event is part of the 40th anniversary celebration for NC State's Department of Computer Science. NC State student organizations – the Association for Computing Machinery/Association for Information Technology Professionals and Women in Computer Science – will provide a large portion of the student volunteers. The non-profit organization that created and trademarked the Geek-A-Thon event – Research Triangle Park-based Kramden Institute Inc. – will also provide volunteers and support.
Volunteers will work in four-hour shifts and will wear their 'geek' T-shirts – a symbol for each volunteer who has worked a full shift at a Kramden Geek-A-Thon – with pride, says Dr. Mark Dibner, the founder of Kramden Institute. He adds that about 1,650 computers have been refurbished and donated to needy students since the first Geek-A-Thon in 2005.
Deserving middle school students will receive newly refurbished PCs, each with a monitor, keyboard and mouse, plus a special mouse pad commemorating the NC State Department of Computer Science's 40th anniversary.
"This is our 11th Geek-A-Thon, but the first to be coordinated entirely by a group outside our Research Triangle Park-based organization," Dibner said. "As we grow, we hope to bring the Geek-A-Thon process to other communities around North Carolina and throughout the United States – building computers for local kids, similar to how Habitat for Humanity builds homes for local citizens. We are one or two corporate sponsors away from making this dream a reality."
Ken Tate, director of development and external relations in NC State's Department of Computer Science, says the effort has received strong support from industry. Primary event sponsors include the N.C. Chapter of the Society for Information Management, which is providing substantial financial support and the majority of the PCs to be refurbished, as well as The Pantry/Kangaroo Express, Cisco Systems and the Raleigh Chapter of Information Systems Security Association.
"This is an event that industry can really get its arms around," Tate says. "Bringing together members of the 'geek' community to help less fortunate students in our community, especially during their middle school years when career interests are being formulated, could have a significantly positive impact on these kids' lives and the community at large. This initiative represents the values that the NC State Department of Computer Science has fostered for 40 years."
"About 40 of the computers will go to students from Centennial Campus Middle School," says Elwood Peters, the magnet school's outreach coordinator. "The thing that has impressed me the most has been the gratitude of the parents and the excitement of the students."
For Peters and Centennial Campus Middle School, the partnership with the NC State has been a positive one.
"One outgrowth of the Geek-A-Thon partnership with NC State is that we are beginning a STARS (Students and Technology in Academics, Research, and Service) outreach at Centennial Campus Middle School in October," Peters said. "Three computer science students from NC State and three students from St. Augustine's College will be mentoring 12 of our students in a Saturday mentorship once a month for the remainder of the school year."
A limited number of volunteer shifts are still available for the Geek-A-Thon event, both technical and non-technical.
For more information, visit www.csc.ncsu.edu/geekathon. To volunteer, visit www.kramden.org and see the Geek-A-Thon page.
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