Stratford students recently earned as many as ten community service hours in one day refurbishing sixty-five classroom computers for donation to the non-profit organization Aunt Maggie’s Kitchen Table (AMKT).

“Aunt Maggie’s Kitchen Table serves at-risk families in Macon’s Anthony Homes public housing complex. Programming is managed and staffed mostly by Wesleyan (College) students, is geared toward supporting vulnerable families in their efforts to become more empowered and self-sufficient through Saturday School tutoring, art and computer instruction, gardening, library projects, mentoring, health, fitness and safety,” Ms. Jill Amos, Director of Wesleyan’s Lane Center for Service and Leadership said.

History Department Chair Mr. Michael Kelley wanted to recycle the old computers in his room, saving them from the landfill. Kelley learned that  Aunt Maggie’s Kitchen Table was in need of computers and they would accept the refurbished units.

After it became apparent that Director of Technology Mr. Mike McCue’s student intern could not refurbish the computers by himself, it was proposed and approved that all computers be updated at one time as a community service project. “Students stayed all day and worked extremely hard to refurbish all the computers necessary,” McCue said.

The service project was conducted in the main hall of the science building. Student volunteers’ work included the erasing of Stratford data, personal data and programs, the installation of programs, the disconnect from Stratford’s domain, and the setup of child-friendly user modes on the computers.

Of the sixty-five computers, fifty-nine units were delivered to AMKT’s house on Wesleyan Rd. Six computers were unable to be updated. “We plan to have a camp this summer and are expecting more participants and our numbers to grow, so we will continue to give them out until they are gone,” Amos said.