After the first school district shut down back in April, many of our partner schools approached PCF for help. While the district had provided a large/huge infusion of Chromebooks, there were not enough to go around and in some cases, schools were reluctant to empty out their classroom inventory in fear of equipment loss or damage upon the students’ return to school (some day).

There was a lot of uncertainty and some schools simply did not have enough computers to go around. So, with the help of volunteers, PCF refurbished every eligible computer we had in inventory and created a plan to distribute them as equitably as possible. In some cases, we emptied the laptop carts that we previously gifted to schools and utilized those computers to supply students and their families with free take-home computers.

Back in April 2020, not as much was known about how Covid was transmitted. But we felt we knew enough to stay safe: we set up shop outside on sidewalks, wore masks/gloves, asked people to stay apart, and used liberal amounts of sanitizer. Regardless, those early days were filled with some level of anxiety but we felt what we were doing was important.

All in all PCF distributed several hundred laptops. Many of those laptops