Austin Business Retailmenot Steps Up To The Plate

We've been donated some fairly nice equipment over the years. Many of the computers we get are anywhere from 4 to 8 years old. With enough RAM upgrades, we can place these computers into our student's homes and calculate they can get at least two years out of them. Laptops, well; we have some problems getting newer ones donated. Once the Reglue Kid is a Junior in high school or over, these kids need portable power. 

A good snapshot of what we are now receiving is the Lenovo T-61 and T-61p. That's the grade of laptop we are seeing now. And there's nothing wrong with that. We bump them up anywhere from 4 to 8 gigs of RAM and they are ready to go to work. Donna Rawlings is in her second year of graduate studies and her Lenovo T61p has served her wonderfully.

But every now and then, we require laptops with a bit more horsepower. Many of our Reglue students have entered or are getting ready to enter college. And as mentioned, some of them into graduate studies. Those quality machines we have a tougher time getting our hands on. Until recently...that's when the good people at RetailMeNot stepped in to help.

We rarely know the specs on all the donations we pick up until we arrive on site or they are delivered to us. It can be a surprise at times, and most of those surprises are pleasant. But the IT Team at RetailMeNot donated some fantastic, gently used laptops, between 2 to 4 years old. 

From MacBook Pro 15.4's to Dell Precision M4600s and Latitude E6520/6420's, we have what we need and more to see that our undergrads and graduate students have the horsepower needed to do their work. The computers, monitors and other components you see here are simply representative of each piece donated. Retailmenot donated us over a dozen quad core laptops along with several desktops, 24 inch monitors, video cards, motherboards and other important components we need on a day-by-day basis

Thank you RetailMeNot!  For one of the few times in my life, I don't have adequate words to express how grateful we are for these donations. Coupled with the other great donations received recently, our laptop need is about two thirds covered up to this coming fall. Without their generosity, we would not even come close to meeting the demand for these financially disadvantaged kids. Kids like Holly's children.

Holly Syfret is a hard-working single mom. Two years ago, Holly and her kids lost their husband and father and that set the family reeling. Holly was a stay-at-home mom and after the emotional shock started to wear down, the reality of caring for 7 children set in. Holly had no real and current training to accompany her to the job interviews that laid ahead. Being the fighter she is, Holly now is working two jobs while her oldest daughters tend to the younger kids. And speaking of kids, they are:

Autumn-rose age 18
Sierra age 15
Danielle age 14
Judah age 12
Promise age 9
Noah age 6
Blessing age 6

We not only provided them a fantastic quad core laptop from Retailmenot.com, the desktop computer we built for them was built from 2 year old parts including a quad core intel chip, motherboard and graphics card. Autumn Rose will be entering college for her undergraduate studies this fall and wants to study mathematics. She will go to college with an additional one of these fantastic laptops provided by Retailmenot. It is a Dell Precision M4600 with 16 gigs of RAM and a 256 GB SSD.

 Right down the street from us is the Calzada family. Jose is another great dad that works two jobs to support his family. His kids have most definitely put a Retailmenot computer to work. We've found that even the youngest of kids appreciate and benefit from a computer in the home, These kids will be able to compete with their peers and that above all else is why we want to help people like Mr. Calzada and his family. These folks are the reason we exist.

 As well as with individual kids or families, Reglue has been an active
community member. We have set up a number of computer rooms for organizations that serve the community. From three facilities here in Taylor to a new room in Elgin Texas, we've tried to help those who need a computer with Internet access. Yolanda Johnson with our Reglue volunteer James Lantzch stands by one of the two computers we installed for the Portfolio Resident Services in Elgin Texas. Portfolio is an organization that gives kids a safe environment while waiting for working parents to pick them up. Yolanda is the director for the facility in Elgin. Many of the components within those computers came from Retailmenot and we expect them to last another three years at least.

We simply could not operate at the level we enjoy without our corporate sponsors. And as I said earlier, saying "Thank You" to Retailmenot almost seems trite. I sincerely hope that they know just how much they have impacted the lives of those they've helped.

All righty then...