2010 Numbers

In 2010:

Empower Up processed 16,815 donated items dropped from 2,846 WA residents. An additional 4,958 items were collected during the 30 events or off-site pick-ups during the course of the year. The number of donors increased 163% over 2009, and the amount of equipment donated increased by 212%.

Empower Up had the help of 577 volunteers that put in 10,468 hours of service to help us accomplish our mission this past year. Volunteer sign-ups increased 663% over 2009 and total volunteer hours increased by 364%.

Our volunteers helped us to get 6,612 items back into reuse, including 83 free computer systems donated to families in need or to local non-profit organizations. Reuse showed an increase of 238% over 2009.

Empower Up diverted 343,034 lbs of electronic waste from the land fill. Our recycling operation salvaged 228,833 lbs, recovering the gold, ferrous & non-ferrous metals, plastic and glass, an increase of 427% over 2009.

Hurray for us!

Empower Up offers free resources.

Article in the Daily Insider about our free education offerings.

Electronics & Block Foam Collection Event

This Saturday, January 8 - 9a to 1p at Clark College. Story by the Columbian

Happy New Year!

As we close out 2010, we want to thank everyone who has supported us this year with your time, your computer donations and your financial support. 2010 was a great year for Empower Up and 2011 is going to be even bigger and better! Happy New Years everyone!

WE DID IT!

Empower Up has met our fundraising goal for 2010. Our goal was $40,000 for the year and as of today we are up to $47,731. Thanks to all who gave this year to help support our organization. What a great way to end the year.

Can't we all just get along?

At Empower Up, we're curious about everything to do with computers. That's while you'll find all three major operating systems (at least for personal use) in our facility. We use Windows XP for administrative computers, We sell some computers with Windows XP and some with no OS at all via our Reuse Store. Our class room/Internet Cafe has 1 Ubuntu and 1 MacOS and 10 Windows XP terminals (all running off Windows Server 2003). Some of the free computers we grant are loaded with Ubuntu and some with Windows XP. We are in the process of building a database server that will be running a version of Linux in what is known as a LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and will be part of a new Point of Sale (POS) system that will be an open source software implementation.

We also do a lot in the "cloud". We use Google Apps for most our our internal IT infrastructure - email, calendars, document sharing and online colaboration. We also use DropBox to backup all our files on multiple computers, including several off-site.

Soroptimist International of Vancouver Anniversary Dinner

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Soroptimist International of Vancouver Anniversary Dinner, celebrating 69 years of the organizations history. The group also gives out their annual grant awards to worthy organizations. This year we are helping their dollars go further by fulfilling any computer technology requests. We are providing a refurbished office computer to one of the four award winners, Open House Ministries, this leaves the full $500 grant available to the organization to spend on other needs.

The dinner was held at Galeotti's Restaurant in Battle Ground, excellent food and wine. If your looking for a great meal while on Main Street...check it out.