I was with a volunteer group associated with a National Guard unit. We formed after the unit was sent to Iraq. Those of us with computer savey started taking donated computers, mostly from area employers and repurposed them. We would clean off the disk, reload an OS (originally Win98) and set them up so families who had a member deployed overseas (1st Iraq then Afganistan) but had no computer at home could use them to email their family members. We also sent a number of those computers along with Guard members to take to the overseas unit and they set up an email center within the unit. It wasn't long before word got out as to what we were doing and we started to hear from people across the country. Since we had given to everyone associated with the local Guard unit a way to email their loved ones', we started to give to other units around the state. People started to donate money so we could refurb the equipment when needed and local trucking companies made room (donated space) on their trucks if they were going near a Guard unit that had requested computers from us. ISPs also donated access up to 1 year to the family that we gave equipment to.

I am a vet and it really felt good to help the families of those who are serving. Our group is no longer active but you could always check with the local unit to see if there is a local volunteer group doing what we did. Just another thought on what to do with your old equipment. Bruce