Visions In Education Sends 1,000 Chromebooks To Families Affected By Wildfires
In the wake of the devastating wildfires that left many communities in Southern California reeling, Visions In Education stepped up to help families in the area stay connected. Visions joined forces with representatives from The California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), Capitol Advisors Group LLC and UPS to donate 1,000 Chromebooks to four Southern California YMCA locations (Southeast Ventura YMCA, Santa Monica Family YMCA, YMCA of the Foothills, and LA Metro YMCA).
As an organization that serves thousands of students throughout nine Northern California counties, Visions In Education knows how technology can connect people. We make use of thousands of Chromebooks and other devices that we periodically update with newer models to provide the best support for our families. Rather than sell the surplus Chromebooks as we have in the past, Director of Technology Uriel Gonzalez saw an opportunity to make an impact and help impacted families in the LA area.
“After seeing the devastation and insurmountable loss due to the Southern California wildfires, I am glad that we were able to do our part to help out those communities,” says Uriel. “This is a small gesture that hopefully goes a long way for those families impacted.”
Superintendent Steve Olmos reached out to Abigail Browning at the California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) who connected Visions with Capitol Advisors Group LLC representative Christina Marcellus. Once these connections were made, organizations came together quickly to set up this delivery. Visions’ Student Technology Services team went above and beyond to process and ship 1,000 Chromebooks in a short period of time. This work, undertaken on top of STS’s usual duties, included:
- Identifying, preparing, and testing Chromebooks for donation
- Provided hundreds of chargersto ensure successful use
- Preparing the materials for logistics like boxes, bubble wrap, and tape and packing all the devices
- Coordinating with UPS to ship these machines free of charge and loading them on to a trailer
“Our STS team meticulously sorted through hundreds of returned Chromebooks and chargers, carefully grading and inventorying each one to ensure we selected the 1,000 best units for donation,” says Student Technology Services Supervisor Nick Veret. “We were fortunate to have the UPS team dedicate resources to our effort, providing us with a large trailer capable of holding multiple pallets for transport.”
The most astounding thing was how quickly this all came together; less than two weeks after we connected with YMCA, a UPS truck left Visions headquarters bound for Southern California thanks to the swift work and cooperation of dozens of people working across the state.
Building Bridges
A big thank you to everyone in Student Technology Services, including supervisor Nick Veret and STS members James Umiker, Connor Puckett, Hasib Mohmand, Sean Proctor, Rodrigo Guzman Navarro, and Tyler Nguyen for coming together so quickly to make this tremendous act of generosity possible.
This effort would have not been possible without organizations working together to help our students, including California’s Office of Emergency Services, Capitol Advisors Group LLC, and UPS who came together with Visions to quickly put these Chromebooks in the hands of students and families who need them.
Visions hopes that these devices will help families impacted by this environmental tragedy as they rebuild their homes, schools, and communities.
