Calgary IT business backs up Big Brothers Big Sisters
Posted May 7, 2020 8:15 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) – If you have a laptop or tablet you don’t use, there’s a child out there who needs it.
Kids who don’t have computers can’t get the support they need from their mentors through Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) during the pandemic.
You can help by donating your gently used laptop or tablet this weekend and a Calgary IT support company will fix it up and take it to the organization.
Larry Lizotte with NBi Solutions says all you have to do is show up in their parking lot for a safe drop off on Saturday morning.
“It’s going to be very similar to the airport. We’ll have bins on tables and people can just get out, drop them off in the bin, we’re going to take that bin, the team will be wearing gloves, we’re going to take that, put it into plastic bags, take it in to our office and sterilize it in there.”
He says the tech will be rebuilt and redistributed back out to BBBS so kids can use them for support and online learning.
They’re hoping for items that are in good condition, around five years old or newer.
Company President Doug Thubron says when the pandemic hit, they were trying to think of what they could do to help as a technical company and soon discovered how big this problem was.
“We started looking for laptops and we found very quickly that the procurement and availability of laptops was zero because everyone went to a work-from-home strategy. We were fortunate enough to get our hands on ten,” said Thubron. But after talking to Big Brothers Big Sisters, they needed to do more.
“We realized that we could use our technical abilities to maybe deliver some more laptops and tablets for them and that’s how this event happened.”
Curbside drop off will be set up in the parking lot of NBi Solutions at 3603 – 8th Street SE, on Saturday, May 9, between 8:00 a.m. and noon.
