Wake County must distribute 40,000 laptops to students soon. Can you help?
Hundreds of volunteers are needed to give Wake County students the technology they need to learn from home in the upcoming school year.
The Wake County school system and Activate Good, an organization that recruits and connects volunteers to needs in the Triangle, plans to distribute 40,000 laptop computers and 10,000 hotspots. Volunteer registration is beginning now for the device distribution that will start Aug. 17.
The devices are needed because Wake County, like the majority of North Carolina school districts, is only offering remote instruction for the start of the school year. Even when in-person instruction begins, students may still split time taking face-to-face classes and online classes until the COVID-19 pandemic eases.
“We especially hope the community will rally around kids and families as they return to school this month,” Amber Smith, executive director of Activate Good, said in a news release. “Volunteers can really make a huge difference here to make sure thousands of kids will have access to the same learning opportunities as their peers this year.”
No special skills needed for volunteering
Volunteers can go to activategood.org/operationaccesspart2/ to register and to find out more information about the program. No special skills are required, but volunteers must be over the age of 18, in good health and comfortable participating in person.
Activate Good says safety measures such as social distancing, mask requirements and regular cleaning intervals will be in place.
Volunteers will help guide families when they arrive to pick up their devices at one of five school locations across Wake County. Volunteer shifts begin Aug. 17 and will continue until the devices requested are distributed.
Activate Good helped the school district in April to distribute 10,000 hotspots to families. This new phase is called Operation Access Part 2.
“Activate Good has been and continues to be a critical partnership as we work to meet the needs of our students and families,” Marlo Gaddis, the district’s chief technology officer, said in a news release. “Their staff and volunteers have become our extended family in Technology Services.”
This story was originally published August 6, 2020 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Wake County must distribute 40,000 laptops to students soon. Can you help?."
