Breakfast Rotary has computer drive for ETTAC on Saturday

A low-cost, big-impact opportunity to help people who have disabilities

The Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club is sponsoring a computer drive for the East Tennessee Technology Access Center from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 2. The computer drive will be in the parking lot of TNBank on the corner of Illinois Avenue and Rutgers Avenue.

ETTAC will accept working computers that are XP or newer, both desktop or laptop, Macs, iPads, iPods, monitors, and accessories. You can be assured that ETTAC wipes them clean of all your personal information and then gives them or loans them to people with disabilities who cannot afford to purchase a computer.

“Please don’t remove the hard drives,” a press release said.

Currently, ETTAC has a waiting list of 45 people who want a computer.

The Breakfast Rotary Club is doing this because typically one would have to drive to South Knoxville to drop it off at ETTAC’s office. ETTAC serves people with disabilities in 24 counties, with Anderson being the third-largest in the region.

ETTAC will take printers if someone wants to donate a printer, but only if the ink cartridge is in it so the recipient knows which replacement cartridge to buy. And once again, it must be in working condition.

“We have stories of single mothers who have a disability and can’t leave the house to be part of vocational rehabilitation programs because they have to care for a child with a disability or a parent at home,” the press release said. “Some women are then able to work at home using these donated computers.”

ETTAC cited one woman in Clinton who has MS and can no longer work, but her home computer was no longer working.

“She was receiving home health from the state so she would not have to go into a nursing home, but she was financially and physically eligible for a nursing home,” the release said. “She still longed to get online to email friends and find out the latest on MS research via the Internet. This was a while ago, before Facebook. Yes, we got her a computer. It really means a lot to these people to have a computer.”