NHS students donate computers for locals in need

The computers are part of the Virginia Student Training and Refurbishment Program. Students in Lightfoot’s class learn how to disassemble the computers, recondition them and put them back together again in good working order.  

This year, they received 200 computers, and over 100 went to Grenada and St. Kitts, two islands devastated by storms this past year. The students had the opportunity to give a presentation to 22 Caribbean ambassadors at the CariCom conference in February.  

“The opportunity to give back to the community is so important,” Alexandra Steele, a 10th grade student shared. “I want to go into computer science in college, and I really like that we can help the community.”

Northumberland Public Library has given out eight computers from a donation earlier in the year. Arthur Newman, library outreach supervisor, shared how one patron was so thankful that she cried and asked if she could hug him because she could not, at this time, afford to buy a computer.

Lightfoot lives by the adage “if you do the right things for the right reasons, good things will follow.”  

“When the partnership with Mr. Lightfoot’s class began we never thought about how much it would grow,” shared library director Jane Blue. “Since our first conversation we have had the students not only donate computers through us to those in need, but they now come one or two at a time on Mondays to help us with our free computer classes. We are so thrilled to be able to work with them.”

“It’s great to be in a program to help people have more knowledge in the computer world,” senior Micheal Jones said.

The students still have more computers to work on. Although two students from the program will graduate this year, the rest will be coming back to Northumberland High School in the fall and hope that they can continue this work by perhaps turning it into an afterschool club. “There are thousands of people around the world who have benefited from this program, and it is gratifying to know that through our efforts people from our own community can benefit as well,” Steele said.