Young Boys Help Recycle Computers

Aluminum cans and newspaper aren't the only things getting recycled these days computers have made the list. <br><br>The young boys who are giving hard drives, monitors and mother boards a second

Saturday, May 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Aluminum cans and newspaper aren't the only things getting recycled these days computers have made the list.

The young boys who are giving hard drives, monitors and mother boards a second chance are getting a second chance as well.

It's more than a lesson in computer lingo, Jim Erwin is teaching lessons that will hopefully change lives.

He's at the Bethesda Boys Home about 20 miles south of Tulsa where he is part of a recycling program for computers and boys. He's been in their shoes before and someone helped him out.

"Just want to do that with other boys for the rest of my life just try to help them to do the same have the same experience I have," says Jim Erwin with Bethesda Boys Home.

He's got some help, local companies donate the computers and volunteers from the Tulsa Computer Society come to the home on the weekends and help teach the boys how they work. Together they reformat the computers and fix their problems before passing them on to non-profit places who need them.

Connie Hash's church is going to put some to use in a new youth computer lab.

"We've had lots of bits and pieces donated to us but they didn't fit together so the computer society put those together for one and are giving us four more," Hash says.

James Appleberry is one of those boys who is learning about second chances... for the computers and himself.

"My life, what I was doing on the street, it wouldn't have got me nowhere," Appleberry says.

But in the 9-month program boys like James are learning skills they can take with them. Erwin says it's working.

"They come in like the boys with a lot of problems hard drives messed up a lot of bad information put on them sometimes but we just wipe them out and clean them up," Erwin says.

If you would like to donate a computer may contact Brian at BBH in Mounds. The phone
number is 827-6409.