Marching On Together

 

It has been a "memorable" few days.

I was recently asked to write an article which was published on the same day last month by the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post.    

It was about a project called Leeds Tech Angels, dreamt up and piloted by my big-hearted genius of a friend Ben McKenna.

Helping kids without access to the internet or a suitable machine has become a huge issue around the country for reasons we all understand. 

However, Ben was already on top of this in the early weeks of the pandemic.  First, he helped establish  Digital Access West Yorkshire (DAWY) to acquire, refurbish and distribute unused IT equipment - preferably laptops - to digitally excluded children in the region.  In the four months from April, DAWY had given over 50 machines to those in need. That took us through until August when Ben gave me a call. 

Thanks to support from a gaggle of partners including  Leeds Community Foundation, Leeds City Council, Ahead Partnership, Zero Waste Leeds and DAWY itself, Ben was preparing to launch a new project which is now known as Leeds Tech Angels.  It went live at the beginning of December with the aim of encouraging employers and the public to donate any spare laptops and tablets for use by young people across the city who were without one. Ben's busy team of volunteers would then wipe them of data, install new software and get them out to the right homes. My mission was to help promote the good works, a task made easy thanks to incredible levels of support from the Yorkshire Evening Post and its wonderful editor, Laura Collins.   

And it was all going well, the highlight being a delivery - just days ago - of a large consignment of top notch laptops from Leeds-based financial services firm Hitachi Capital.  

But, on Wednesday morning, I received a phone call.  Around 40 Leeds Tech Angels laptops had been stolen overnight from a storage facility and the police were on the scene.  

It was a truly devastating moment.  40 laptops snatched from the hands of deprived kids.  Classy.

There was no way we were going to let the baddies win although, clearly, we couldn't do it alone.

So I contacted the Yorkshire Evening Post who ran a great story to help us.  We were also put in touch with Leeds United who had indicated a willingness to help.  Those conversations took place precisely 48 hours ago.

Yesterday morning, Ben set up a GoFundMe page and, at lunchtime, Leeds United's star striker Patrick Bamford tweeted this.

Since then (at the time of writing), £17,000 has been raised.  It would be good to get that total up a lot more by Monday when the draw for Patrick's shirt is likely to take place.  

But, after the draw, the appeal will go as we want to help as many kids as the generosity of the people of Leeds allows.

Once again, HERE is the link to the GoFundMe page.

Also, if you have laptops or tablets that you no longer need, we'd love to have them too and HERE is the link to explain the simple process.

Thanks if you've managed to read all of this.

And double thanks if you're able to help