First Collaboration With Tambah Foundation
First, we want to Thank Branko Tambah for his long-term dedication and generosity with Uniting Distant Stars, Next, we want to share how we collaborated with his foundation to find a vendor, UpTech, for discounted used laptops at our computer lab. We purchased 17 Lenovo T440, i5, 8 GB ram, and 120 SSD drives.at $125 each and 17 locks at $5 a piece. Plus, his foundation donated funds to cover five of the 17 laptops and locks.
On Saturday, March 18, Branko and Adam Pederson (UDS Board Chair) helped pack the laptops along with 12 Video Portals that we received as a donation from Meta (Facebook) through our TechSoup membership. Also, five copies of his recently published book, "Building the New Capacity: Vol:1 (The Bridge Call Civility)". Then we transported both boxes to M&M Shipping LLC in Brooklyn Park. Branko allowed us to use his M&M membership to save $40 on shipping which I made an in-kind donation to cover the $230 charge. Based on the invoice, we anticipate the two boxes arriving between May 18 and 23.
Below are photos of Branko and me with the two boxes ready for shipment and the video portals. We forgot to take photos of the laptops, but Kelvin will take care of them when they arrive in Liberia. Furthermore, we can now work on a computer refresh schedule to ensure we replace them more promptly. And Kelvin requested laptops over desktops because they take less electricity to operate.
