Lions Club project provides computers for local students

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

— Thanks to efforts of the Gentry Lions Club and donations by area residents, a number of students who did not have computers in their homes on which to do homework and research for school now have them.

About 14 or 15 machines which were donated to the Lions Club have been refurbished and delivered to Gentry schools and made available to students and their families over the past several months since the program was started, according to Lions Club member Randy Moll, who says he’s lost count of the machines he’s delivered, but knows it’s at least 14 and maybe up to 15 after the two delivered to the Gentry Intermediate School earlier this month.

Moll, who also edits the Westside Eagle Observer, said the schools have been finding new homes for the computers almost as fastas he can deliver them. He said he’s also received some much-appreciated help and technical advice from George Alexander of Gravette, who also donatedseveral refurbished machines of his own to the project.

The donated computers are checked and reformatted with a new operating system, Moll said, most with a Linuxbased OS like Ubuntu or Lucid Puppy because theyare open source and do not require a license to use and have many free open-source applications which can be easily installed.

“Even though Linux operating systems are not as well known, most are easy to use and have almost all thefeatures of other commercially-available operating systems,” Moll said. “I use Linux myself, all the time, on my own computers and like them better than the commercial systems and programs that come preinstalled on most computers.”

Almost all the computers reformatted and delivered to the schools have been desktopswith keyboards and monitors. Those with Pentium III processors and later have worked well, Moll said.

“It’s really been a treat when we receive a PentiumIV and can set that up for a student,” Moll said. “The machines run great with Ubuntu or Kubuntu and are super fast and easy to use.”

Though the club has only been able to refurbish one laptop so far, the machines have a real advantage for the Lions Club project. They are portable and can be taken to a Wi-Fi hot spot for Internet access.

“Even though we’ve supplied Internet-ready computers to students, I’m afraid many won’t be able to take advantage of the resources available on the Web because Internet access is still unaffordable,” Moll said. “With laptops, the students can go to the Gentry Public Library and to other Wi-Fi hot spots which are becoming more and more common and access the Internet without cost. That would be a real benefit to the program,” he said.

While there have been afew machines donated that were not repairable, Moll said he was able to use parts and memory from unusable machines to fix other machines and get them to students. The club has also received an abundance of old monitors, so many that the club is declining to take monitors unless they are with a computer or are of the flat-screen variety.

Moll is hoping, as the program continues and more and more people upgrade their computers and laptops, the club will receive more laptops and quality desktops to reformat for students.

“If there is interest and others wish to help with the work, the program could also be expanded to other westside schools,” Moll said.

News, Pages 7 on 03/23/2011