Obama campaign is donating computers & office equipment/supplies to schools

[RamboLiberal]

Word spread quickly last week through Sto-Rox High School when students learned that the administrative offices were filled with Barack Obama paraphernalia.

Students snapped up posters and stickers for their lockers, backpacks and bedroom walls, eager to commemorate the victory of the first African American to ascend to the nation's highest office.

The enthusiasm excited administrators, but it's not what brought tears to the eyes of Jean Schmalzreid, the district's director of federal programs and special projects. That happened when she saw school facilities workers bring in dolly after dolly piled high with thousands of dollars worth of supplies donated from Obama campaign offices in Pittsburgh.

Six computers will be dedicated to creating learning centers for struggling middle school students. An all-in-one printer, copier and fax machine will hum all day in the middle school library. And the art department received piles of markers, paint and poster board.

They were part of a program Mr. Obama's campaign, funded better than any in the history of American politics, devised in partnership with iloveschools.com, a Web site that helps connect teachers with organizations that donate school supplies.

"President-elect Obama's outreach just means the world to us," Ms. Schmalzreid said. "The man had the foresight to plan this. In the middle of a huge national campaign, he's thinking about poor children."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08317/927129-181.stm

Wow - way to go Obama campaign! They continue to amaze me! We're going to be in for an amazing President and administration!

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. Everything they do is smart, unselfish, good. nt

[Muttocracy]

2. walking the walk :)

[Fridays Child]

3. I'm SO confused! Would this action be considered Marxist or elitist?

Maybe I should try not to think too hard about it and just wait for Hannity, Billo, and Rush to tell me. :eyes:

(ETA K&R)

[RamboLiberal]

5. Spreading the wealth to those poor people

Good thing it's the campaign's wealth. Wonder if the RNC will file a complaint over this to the FEC?

[progressoid]

6. Jeez. You sure are confused.

It's BOTH Marxist and elitist.

[Fridays Child]

11. Both? Oh, no! Now, I'm really confused.

:rofl:

[blondeatlast]

22. The genius is that it's both! They want to make our youngsters socialist elites!*

*Elites as in the traditional definition of "educated persons"...

[kenziemom06]

23. LOL!

great point!!!

[VADem11]

4. Spreading the wealth

Oh noez, the evils of socialism! Giving away supplies to schools! :sarcasm:

Seriously though, good for the Obama campaign!

[struggle4progress]

7. Thank you, Senator. Maybe we can do this again in 2012

[progressoid]

8. I heard that the Iowa City office stuff went to Kenya.

Heard it from somebody who heard if from somebody etc. :shrug:

[RamboLiberal]

10. I usually don't believe something I hear from somebody who hears from somebody

This one sounds like the crap some of the wingnuts are spreading that Obama will be sending our $$$s to Kenya. Even if U.S. under Obama gives same amount of foreign aid to Africa as Bush it will be a big scandal with the wingnuts.

[Withywindle]

14. Even if it was true, what the hell is your problem?

Do you really begrudge Kenyan schoolchildren a bunch of used computers and art supplies?

Who cares what the wingnuts say? The combined value of all of that stuff can't add up to more than 10 minutes' worth of what we flush on the Iraq war.

[RamboLiberal]

16. Nobody here cares - just speculating on the attacks

the RW'ers use. I just thought this rumor sounded like something the wingnuttery is spreading.

[kaygore]

26. I helped clean the Va Beach (VA) office

The things of value that were left were donated to my church which has an out reach to the homeless and an after school program for children of the homeless who are housed at local hotels in the winter so the living is very cramped and not conducive to studying.

Things that could not be used by my church's programs for the homeless went to the thrift shop next door that raises money for the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters in Norfolk.

[liskddksil]

9. Now thats what I call recycling! nt

[rexy]

12. Damn socialists helping struggling American children. nt

[TeamJordan23]

13. Joe the Plumber's worst nightware coming true. nm

[AllyCat]

15. Damn Communists! I want my campaign donation back!!!1111!!11

What a class act that one is. But maybe he should have given it to AIG...they are really hurting right now. :sarcasm:

[RamboLiberal]

17. BTW the charity they are working with sounds like a really worthy one

http://iloveschools.com/

iLoveSchools.com is a free donor-matching service for education! School teachers build WishLists of equipment, materials and supplies; anything they need for their classroom. Donors locate teachers through our WishList search and offer their donations of new or used items or the cost of the teacher's WishList.

100% of donations go directly to a school teacher in need!

[axollot]

24. I buy and sell used books to help w/ bills around the home since

I cannot work a normal job pt or ft with my health. This brings me into contact with TONS of excellent books for kids of all ages - especially primary school.

Every book my daughter has read to her (she's 5 and reading on her own too) or that she reads, gets put into a box to send to her class, where her teacher can give them to kids that may not have access to books at home or are struggling to learn to read.

In Florida, (don't know what it's like in other states) children are supposed to read (or have read to them) 16 books a month. BUT - can only take out (at least at her grade level - Kindergarten) 1 book a week. Hard to reach that target with rules like that. The budgets are so ridiculous around here (so much for the Lottery helping schools, aye?) that the teacher has to pay out of pocket any book that goes missing in her class. So, it's hard for her to send kids home with a lot of books that are not from the library.

Even for my son who's 15, he asked me if I could get the book "The Outsiders" for his class last year in 8th grade, since they have to share really torn up copies, they also could not leave the classroom.

The teacher and I worked together to get the class (which would actually be *this* years) all new copies and the old ones could be used to take copies home. She has asked the school board for replacements and was turned down.

Things like this go on all over this country I'm sure and as State budgets get tighter, school budgets will too.

Children's books are so easy to find and some excellent ways to get books for your local schools are - request on craigslist, request on 'freecycle' or keep eyes peeled for freecyle offers in your area. (must belong to your local freecycle group, mine is a yahoo.com group), yard sales, Library sales and the final days of 'book-dealer' sales in your area (they are often just really large library sales, Gainesville has one with about 100g in inventory, with free books and really cheap ones on the last day).

So glad Obama's team donated that equipment, didn't expect otherwise. Still, so very nice to have logical and smart in an elected official!

Cheers
Sandy

[Bread and Circus]

18. This is a good idea, but dangerous....hard drives can sometimes hold sensitive info

[Hippo_Tron]

19. I'd say very few of the computers had sensitive info

I worked on the campaign during the primaries and all of our voter databases were stored online. Anything that could possibly be considered sensitive info was generally stored on one of the paid staffers' personal laptops and not an office computer. I would imagine that was the case for most of the field offices where the vast majority of the equipment probably comes from.

I would imagine that the Chicago Office probably had some desktops with sensitive info on them and I doubt that they are giving those computers away. Axelrod, Plouffe, Gibbs, and all of the other big guys were constantly on the road with Obama so I doubt any of them had a desk at any office or a desktop computer.

[boppers]

20. SCI fixes that.

Basic security premise: Super-seekrit info doesn't wind up on low-level staffer's drives.

Coupled with the heads-up the campaigns received about site-scraping diffs and recursive data soaking, I'd say they've hired some cool heads who know *exactly* what was on those (now wiped) drives.

[Patiod]

21. So THIS is where my campaign donation ends up?

Sweet!

[kaygore]

25. The Va Beach Obama HQ gave their materials, etc. to

the homeless outreach of Virginia Beach United Methodist Church. The Church also has an after-school program for the children of the homeless who attend Cooke Elementary School. The Obama Campaign provided office supplies, such as poster board, markers, staplers, etc. to the program, and other materials.

Food, rain coats, umbrellas, flashlights, un-printed tee-shirts, and other sundries were donated to the Church's homeless outreach program, and many items were available the Saturday after the election for the Saturday pancake breakfast that feeds about 100-150 homeless. As it was a rainy day, the rain gear was very welcome!

Furniture, decorative items, dishes, cups, etc. were donated to the thrift shop next door that raises money for the King's Daughters' Children's Hospital in Norfolk.

Matt who headed the Virginia Beach Obama Campaign head quarters was adamant that everything of any value that was left should go to groups who helped those who were less fortunate, especially children! I suspect that this was a mandate from the top.