Hamilton-McMaster Rotaract Club Raises $4,000 for Polio Eradication Efforts

Rotary Club of Hamilton AM

Media Release

(for immediate release, Friday, June 18, 2010)

“Rotary Right Click” Project benefits Hess Street School Students

A number of graduating students from Hess Street School, a Hamilton “inner city school”, will now have computers to take home to prepare them for the challenges of High School.  Computers have become a necessity to complete school work at the High School and Post Secondary level.  Many students at Hess Street School are new Canadians and some families don’t have the resources to provide home computers.  On June 21, 2010, 10:00 am, the Rotary Club of Hamilton AM and its partners in this project will present 20 refurbished personal computers to Hess Street School students.

The Rotary Club of Hamilton AM provides a Christmas breakfast to the entire school each year and wanted to find other ways where members could support the students and staff.  This led club Past-President, Mark Ewer to initiate the “Rotary Right Click Project” and he started searching for retired business and personal computers that could be refurbished and supplied to students that couldn’t afford one.  “We all know that there are thousands of computers each year that come off business leases or otherwise get replaced.  I was hoping we could breathe new life into some of these machines and support students who could benefit from them.  Once again, Hamiltonians “stepped up to the plate” and in a short period of time 20 refurbished PC’s were put together.”

Key to this project was identifying surplus computers and BINATECH, a Hamilton technology company immediately provided 10 computers, hard drives already cleaned and ready for new software.  “Through the generosity of Binatech clients, we were able to match surplus computers with the project’s needs.  We strongly believe in “corporate responsibility to the community” and this was a perfect way for Binatech to show leadership in promoting education and fighting the challenges of poverty”, said Joan Haworth, BINATECH Vice-President.  6 computers were provided by McMaster University Parking and Security Department and the balance from Rotary Club members or their friends who wanted to make a difference by donating a surplus PC.

Another key partner was greenByte, a program of St. Leonard’s Society that specializes in refurbishing and selling of used computers.  Greenbyte cleaned and repaired all the machines as required and loaded Windows XP and MicroSoft Office software on all the units.  Finally, the funds required to pay for licensing, purchase of a refurbished LCD monitor and new keyboard, mouse and flash drive came from the Rotary Club of Hamilton AM budget.  Mark Ewer explained “because the computers were donated and license costs were modest thanks to greenByte, we were able to put these computer packages together for about $115 per unit, a paltry amount considering the pleasure and benefit that will be derived by these students!  This was the right project for the right school and the right partners so we have named it the “Rotary Right Click Project”.

For further information please contact:

Mark Ewer, Rotary Club of Hamilton AM                          905-730 - 2573

Sharron Ciannavei, Principal, Hess Street School               905- 527- 1439

Joan Haworth, Binatech System Solutions                           905- 527 – 7007