By Edan Lichtenstein | Vice President, First Time Computers
I want to sincerely thank you for your generous contribution through GlobalGiving to the 'Laptops for college bound students' project. First Time Computers has undergone large changes the past few months, resulting in our mission and thus this project being shifted to another organization headquartered two blocks away from our former offices. Your support has been critical in ensuring the refurbishing work of our project – Laptops for College Bound Students – continues!
The work conducted by First Time Computers gone through a lot of changes over the past six months. A year ago, FTC founder and executive director Lowell Dodge decided he wanted to retire and transfer the organization to a successor. As the process to find a replacement was underway, FTC lost a significant grant it had relied on for operations. Confronting a large fiscal crunch, FTC faced difficult decisions on how to continue operations at the current pace and how to proceed in the future. With the help of your donations, those closely associated with FTC helped the organization continue its work with a leaner staff and rent-free space at its current location through the end of 2012. This helped provide the time for the refurbishing work to find a new home with the sister non-profit Byte Back.
In February 2013, Byte Back took over the programs of First Time Computers in a new location in Washington, D.C. under the name First Time Technologies. We are extremely delighted that Byte Back is in a position to continue the work that we have started. Please continue supporting the refurbishing program through donations of cash and computers (www.byteback.org) to help eliminate the digital divide in the greater Washington, D.C. community.
This transition has concluded the immensely successful and impactful work Lowell Dodge, First Time Computer’s Executive Director and founder has done for the greater D.C. community over nearly 10 years. He is retiring after First Time Computers has taken in nearly 10,000 donated computers [9,983 to be exact], fixed most of them up, and put them into the hands of those in the DC area needing them.
Thank you again for all you have done to help this cause.
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