STEM Gives Away Computers Sept. 2

Joseph Maino, The Fernley Reporter

What do you do when your child has a class that requires some homework assignments be turned in online, but you can not afford a computer? Using the Fernley Library computers is an option, but the library is not open every day. Fortunately,the Fernley STEM council had a solution for 11 families.

Principal James Huckaby of Cottonwood Elementary School received about two dozen donated computers the school could not utilize due to their age, but he thought the computers might be able to be refurbished and given to Fernley families.

Huckaby contacted Cottonwood Elementary School STEM facilitator and English as a Second Language teacher Tammy Roseberry to help with the project. Roseberry, with the help of Lyon County School District computer technicians Robin Greenback and Ken Dworkin, disassembled the old donated computers and cobbled together 11 working systems. Greenback, Dworkin and Roseberry had to race to get the computers ready because the Microsoft free offer to upgrade to Windows 10 ended July 31.

The STEM Council’s Outreach Committee developed an application form and made the community aware of this opportunity by posting it on the many Fernley Facebook pages. More than 70 requests were received by the Council. Each family requesting a computer wrote a short paragraph telling the STEM Council why the computer was needed and how it would be used. After much deliberation, the STEM Council selected 11 families to receive the refurbished computers. The families received their computers Sept. 2 at CES.