Thread: iLocal man gives computers to children in need

http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/53137

Saturday, February 18, 2006
Local man gives computers to children in need
Allen Albert refurbishes used computers and gives them to a North Carolina ESL program.
By Erin Zlomek
Special to The Roanoke Times

CHRISTIANSBURG -- He calls his unfinished basement "the computer graveyard."

About 25 monitors sit stacked on shelves between his lawn mower and washing machine.

Boxes of keyboards and mice lay next to spray paint cans and laundry detergent.

And similar to cinder-block shelving, four central processing units support wood planks storing even more discarded computer pieces.

The electronic chaos consumes Allen Albert's Christiansburg home -- and more than 50 Mexican families in North Carolina's Granville County are the beneficiaries.

Albert buys hundreds of computers from surplus auctions at Virginia Tech and Radford University.

He fixes them, and then donates some of them to Janis Reisch, an English as Second Language teacher for Granville County Schools.

The district's ESL program tutors 512 students a day -- 90 percent of whom are Hispanic immigrants struggling to learn English.

Reisch gives Albert's computers to the students' families.

"We try to hit the high school students first to help them with writing papers," she said. "Then we started giving them to middle school students. I started giving [the students] software and educational games ... which would enhance their English."

Several of the students' parents work in tobacco fields and can otherwise not afford a computer.

Using grant money, Reisch routinely scavenges yard sales and Goodwill stores for other learning materials.

"These Hispanic kids don't have any books, so I look for books, I look for educational toys that talk to them like Leapads or anything that says the alphabet," Reisch said.

Albert started buying surplus computers five years ago to sell for profit.

"Then I couldn't sell them for a while because the price of new [computers] came down," said Albert, who met Reisch at a yard sale two years ago.

Before he met Reisch, he was paying people to come and take the computers off of his hands.

Now, Albert sells enough computers to break even and gives the rest to Reisch.

He spends about four hours fixing each computer, 25 of which occupy his spare-bedroom-turned-office. Nine computers fill his coat closet.

The MOOG plant employee also renovates apartments and houses. He hopes to send Reisch another computer donation this spring.

Reisch, whose parents live in Blacksburg, comes to the New River Valley on Virginia Tech home football game weekends.

That's when she scoops up a batch of Albert's computers, loads them in her van and heads back to Granville.

Reisch's student Mayra Ramirez, 16, received a computer last January.

"It helps me do research. My brother uses it to learn more English because he struggles with some words. My sister uses it to play games and learn more English," Mayra said in a thick Mexican accent.

Born in Mexico City, Mayra and her eighth-grade brother, Luis, immigrated to the United States four years ago.

Her 6-year-old sister, Alma, was born in Guanajuato, Mexico.

"My dad worked [in Granville] and we didn't see him every day. He lived here and we lived in Mexico," Mayra said. "He wanted us to live together in the same place. He wanted us to learn English and have a better future."

Mexico's second-largest source of income, after tourism, is the money sent back by family members working in the United States, according to a Duke University study.

It is common for those family members to then immigrate to the United States, Reisch said.

Though Mayra and her family came to the United States legally, North Carolina's undocumented population grew from 26,000 to 206,000 between 1990 and 2000, according to a 2003 U.S. Immigration fact sheet.

Reisch said it is the undocumented students who suffer most.

"Some of these kids graduate top of their class and they may have come [to the United States] when they were two days old and they've been here for 18 years, but because they're undocumented they can't go on to college," Reisch said.

"They're not going to be able to ever do anything with their lives. They might be valedictorian of their class and it doesn't matter."

In respect to those students, North Carolina legislators are trying to pass "The Dream Act," which would grant in-state tuition benefits to undocumented students who graduated from North Carolina high schools.

According to www.finaid.org, a number of states -- including Texas, California, New York, Utah, Illinois, Washington, Oklahoma, and Kansas -- already passed similar laws. A Virginia law is currently pending.

"Some of these kids graduate top of their class and they may have come [to the United States] when they were two days old and they've been here for 18 years, but because they're undocumented they can't go on to college," Reisch said.

They certainly can go to college Ms. Reisch. They can return to their home countries and go to college. Perhaps they will be able to help their fellow countrymen/women to create better lives there before the entire third world invades the US.

Mexico's second-largest source of income, after tourism, is the money sent back by family members working in the United States, according to a Duke University study.

What a bunch of liberal hossapples this article is. Crimmigration is the number ONE source of income for Mexico, surpassing oil and tourism.

I had a friend of mine from the Dominican Republic tell me today that tourists are actually getting whacked at Mexican resorts now!