600+ Laptops Donated to Philadelphia Public Schools

Through the generous equipment and monetary donations from Radnor Middle School, Einstein Healthcare Network, Jefferson Health, the Drumcliff Foundation, and private donors, PCF has been able to significantly increase our support to Philadelphia public schools in the 2019-2020 school year. All in all more than 600 laptops have been donated this year already to various schools including: HH Houston, FS Edmonds, J Logan, WG Harding, T Mifflin, and others. In some cases, the PCF-donated laptops [...]

~250 Family Take-Home Computers Donated

PCF has been working with selected schools to provide parents and caregivers with free take-home computers. As part of the application process, parents commit to spend at least one hour a week with their student/s on the (premium) educational websites that are provided by the District. These are the same educational websites students use during school hours. Tools such as Lexia, iReady, Sumdog and so forth provide a great way for students to cacth up [...]

Classroom Computers/Printers for Our Partner Schools

During the 2018-19 school year, PCF donated and installed hundreds of desktop computers to various local schools including Houston, Emlen, Logan, Mifflin, and others. The bulk of them were installed into classrooms with the remainder used in computer labs, libraries, and parent resource (HSA) rooms. About 20 printers were installed in various classrooms too. The computer equipment is donated to PCF by various local businesses. We then clean it up and refurbish it (add memory [...]

~160 Computers Donated, Delivered, and Installed at Houston Elem.

For the second year in a row, HealthShare Exchange (web ») employees helped PCF with a full day of volunteering. About 30 employees showed up on a hot late summer day at the beginning of the school year, rolled up their sleeves and helped refurbish, clean, and install about 120 desktop computers at Houston Elementary school on Allens Lane in Mt. Airy. In addition, PCF provided another 40+ laptops throughout the building. Just carrying them [...]

60 High-End Laptops to Three Schools

On August 20th, PCF Western suburbs co-founders Ashwin and Srikar, along with their new volunteer Divyesh G., had the opportunity to visit three Philadelphia public schools to distribute a total of 60 laptops. Over the summer, the duo contacted local area companies and organizations to solicit the computer donations. In the end, they acquired about 120 great laptops, many of them with touch screens, lots of memory and crisp displays. Ashwin and Srikar cleaned the equipment [...]

Classroom Computers Installed

During the 20117-18 school year, a great deal of effort was spent ensuring that the teachers in the schools we work with have all the computer equipment they need...or that they have room for, in some cases. The District has done a great job providing schools with additional computers and ChromeBooks but the need remains great. So PCF has worked hard to try and fill the gap. In many cases. the hardest part for us [...]

30+ Projectors Distributed

Two weeks or so ago, Friends' Central School in Wynnewood donated a van-load full of iMacs and Projectors to PCF. This week, the projectors were distributed to some very happy schools including Emlen, Logan, Dobson, Mifflin, Steel, Houston, and Edmonds. To save each school's tech person the hassle, PCF changed the settings on the projectors as they will not be ceiling mounted. It is a little quirky changing the settings when the screen is projected upside [...]

Five Below Back-to-School Drive

Five Below has been incredibly supportive of PCF by organizing two separate customer donation drives at various Philadelphia area locations. Altogether, these drives have amounted to several thousand dollars in toys and much needed supplies. Earlier this year, the Easter drive was a huge success which enabled several schools to create incentive programs aimed at improving behavior among students. Most recently, Justin Strycharz and regional manager Craig Ridgell once again organized a customer donation drive, this [...]

Five Below Customer Donation Drive

Justin Strycharz (l) and Craig Ridgell In the early Spring, PCF received a call from Justin Strycharz at Five Below asking if we would like to participate in their annual Easter Drive. PCF would be the recipient of goods purchased and donated by Five Below customers during checkout at regional stores. We replied that we'd love to participate figuring we would receive a few boxes of goods that we would divvy up among [...]

Radnor District Donation Benefits Houston

The Radnor School District has been incredibly supportive of PCF over the years donating hundreds of laptops and hundreds (thousands?) of books. Their donations have helped all the schools we work with and have made a real difference. Libraries at Emlen, Steel, Logan and Houston have all been supplemented by their donations. And all the schools we work with plus many of the take home laptop computers were donated by Radnor. On this most recent [...]

30+ Laser Printers to Teachers/Centers in Need

PCF has been busy distributing and installing Laser Printers to schools and community centers in need. In many schools, teachers only have access to the printer in their school's main office, which means they have to leave their classroom and walk several flights of stairs just to print a document. For the Community Centers, it allows their users to print their resumes, applications and other documents. PCF came into a large donation of 40 HP Laser [...]

Refurbishing Lessons at Houston

In our effort to make schools more self sufficient, we created our "IT Support Teams" program which teaches 4th and 5th graders how to do parts of the refurbishing and performing the updating of machines themselves. Last year, PCF spent a lot of time coming up with a process that makes this possible (thanks to DAO Technologies as described here). The intent is for these young students to do the bulk of the updating and [...]

20-Unit Laptop Cart for Houston Elementary

Today, we put the finishing touches on a 20-unit laptop cart at Houston Elementary. The second grade teacher, Ms. Renfer, is getting assistance from the district's regional Technology Integration Specialist on how to best integrate technology into her curriculum. The Philadelphia Children's Foundation believes that the earlier students are exposed to technology, the better. So when an ambitious second grade teacher reached out, we were determined to try and help. The most important piece was [...]

Houston Library Computers

PCF has had the fortune of working with Henry H. Houston Elementary school quite a bit in the past. They were our second Classroom Computers program installation plus we have helped them with iPads, the installation of a security system and, most recently, we outfitted their library with five computers. PCF encourages schools to set up our computers into areas that can be accessed by students and their families. Besides being a school resource, the [...]

HeathShare Exchange Volunteer Day & Sponsorship

Board member Hal Augustine organized and facilitated a volunteer day with HealthShare Exchange of Southeastern PA. A team of HSX employees showed up and spent almost a full day doing the spectrum of volunteering: computer rehab, cable sorting, book coding and monitor testing. We got a ton of work done. The computers processed that day ended up at Houston Elementary in Mt Airy a month later and most of the books went to Emlen's new library. And [...]

Houston Elementary Classroom Computers

After our successful pilot program at Emlen Elementary, we were given the go-ahead by the Philadelphia school district to work with schools directly. Through the Mt. Airy Schools Coalition, we learned of the technology needs at Henry H. Houston Elementary and decided to see if PCF would be able to offer assistance. After our initial meeting with Principal Hall and computer teacher and TTL Ms Greenberg, we realized Houston was the perfect project for PCF. The need was [...]