GE retirees reboot for a new mission
Written on January 17, 2010 by admin
Schenectady
Twice a week here, at General Electric Co.’s sprawling campus in Schenectady, a group of GE retirees brings computers to life.
They toil away in Building 262, a lab building in which GE has given them the use of several large rooms. There, they collect and restore computers that are then given free of charge to local schools, nonprofits and charities.
Their all-volunteer nonprofit group, created in 1993, is named GE Elfun Computer Rehab of Schenectady Inc., and it is likely one of the largest computer repair organizations in the Capital Region, churning out more than 500 computers a year for local schools and charities and groups such as the Girl Scouts.
“This is a factory,” said Terry Lustofin, president of the group, which gets $5,000 annually from the GE Volunteer organization and also free rent and IT equipment from GE. “They (the computers) are as good as they were when they were brand new.”
GE donates many of the computers that come through the program — especially those from its GE Global Research operations in Niskayuna. But local businesses and individuals also make donations. The 31 retirees in the program donated 9,000 hours of their time last year to restoring the computers, as well as printers, modems and other networking equipment. Each computer hard drive is wiped clean of old files and new software is uploaded to each one.
“We’ve got parts galore,” Lustofin said. “These are units that are only a few years old.”
The “Elfun” name used by the organization doesn’t refer to elves as might be surmised.
Rather, the Elfun Society is a long-standing social group created by GE employees. It also organized volunteer efforts now run by the GE Volunteer group, which supports hundreds of other projects throughout the Capital Region. The computer group kept the Elfun name.
The refurbished computers — which now total 8,100 — are being used all over the region. That includes The Children’s Museum of Science and Technology in North Greenbush, which got 25 computers two years ago for its Junior Science Lab.
John Graydon Smith, president of the museum, says the lab wouldn’t have been possible without the donation. The computers, which are recessed under lab desks, are used for educational programs.
“They are really a lot of fun to work with,” Smith said of the volunteers. “They really built everything to our specifications. We wouldn’t have been able to purchase 25 new computers on our own. It was critical to making a working computer science lab.”
Another group that has received computers is the Schenectady Inner City Ministry. The Rev. Phil Grigsby, executive director, says the group gets up to 20 computers a year for its Computers for Kids program. In the summer, students who participate take apart computers, rebuild them, and then can take them home for free.
“They give us all the stuff, they’re very generous,” Grigsby said. “It’s exactly what Tech Valley is about.”
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