Tuesday, February 1, 2011
7:39 PM

Help a Needy Child get a Linux Powered Computer just by Clicking Your Mouse

Today I would like to take a moment to talk an organization that I believe performs a fantastic service to it's community:

The Helios Initiative
The slogan of this group is something I believe in:

"A Child's Exposure to Technology Should Never Be Predicated On The Ability To Afford It"

The Helios Initiative is a not for profit organization, based out of Austin Texas, that restores old, donated computers and gives them free of charge to those that are in need of them. Instead of using costly, restrictive, proprietary software to restore these computers the Helios Initiative uses free open source software.

The donated computers are powered by a Linux based operating system and the latest open source educational software. Technology is essentially in this day and age for a child to be able to exceed at school - I can say with 100% certainty that I would not be the person I am today without the access to computers I had from an early age. I was lucky enough to be raised in a family that could afford such technologies - not every child is so lucky.

Now - to the point of this post. The Helios Initiative has been nominated for an event called "Rock a Charity". Essentially this could be an easy way for the Helios Initiative to earn some extra funding with just a little bit of help from the rest of us. Here is how it works:

"Non profit contestants will have their Facebook page monitored for "like" clicks for a 48 hour period beginning on February 1st at 9 AM CST. At the end of that 48 hour period, the top three charities with the most likes will then be invited to a party on the 18th of February. Any clicks prior to or after this 48 hour window will not count. The contest ends at 9 AM CST on Thursday, February 3rd."

All you have to do is click the Helios Initiative like button on the right side of my page here at any time during that 48 hour period to help out (please note I am posting this at 7am CST). Please spread this to your other facebook friends and via twitter - lets make sure they end up in the top three charities for this contest. It could be the difference between a child having to be embarrassed when they don't know how to use a computer at school and them confidently during in a paper typed in Libre Office.

If you want to be a little bit more active in your support of the Helios Initiative see here.

Many Thanks!
~Jeff Hoogland

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