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16 August | 2003 |
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WHITTIER DAILY NEWS
Computer lab wish spawns charity
Now, about seven months after he set up the lab at La Pluma Elementary School, Pflanzer, 47, is running ImageArts.Foundation, which he hopes will raise at least $2,000 in donations to accomplish his goal.
So far his project, in which he takes old computers, refurbishes them, then donates them to schools, has turned his house and garage into workshops cluttered with monitors and parts, robbed him of sleep and cut into the amount of time he spends on the public relations company he has owned for 17 years.
It seems to have taken on a life of its own.
"It's scary now," he said. "I've shut down my office for a day."
But Pflanzer believes it's important for all students to have access to computers.
"We're making a difference," he said. "I know what it's like to watch my kids when they were 2 years old and working on a computer. I can't imagine them not having a computer in school until they are in junior high or high school."
Pflanzer figures it takes him about two hours to build four computers.
"What he won't tell you," said his wife Victoria, "is that as the kids settled in, he'd get up and work. He'd be up at 3 in the morning and be gone. I'd go check and see the lights on in the garage."
It all began in September, when Pflanzer talked to La Pluma Principal Rob Williams about setting up a computer lab at the school, where his 7-year-old daughter, Christy, is in the second grade.
"We noticed there were computers in each classroom. But with rare exceptions, they were used for report cards," Pflanzer said.
Now, La Pluma's lab has about 100 computers programmed to help the children with reading and math.
"Chris has brought some technology to our school that was sorely needed," Williams said. "He's been pretty much a one-man band out there, collecting equipment, rebuilding it and getting it into the hands of kids."
Before he knew it, his house and garage were full of computers. He had more than 150 bodies and 80 monitors in his living room, and he was spending his nights and weekends rebuilding them.
"We had stacks taller than 5 feet high, and there wasn't any room on the floor," he said.
His 3-year-old daughter Tori couldn't get to her toys.
"Every now and then, I would do the delicate walk through the monitors and pull out a new set of toys and bring them back to her room," he said.
After outfitting the lab, Pflanzer found that donations of old computers continued to pour in. That's where the problems began.
So he took out a lease on a building for $1 a month, just to store all the computers and assorted parts. That, however, triggered other problems. Pflanzer says he now needs about $2,000 a month to pay for insurance on the building and for a DSL line.
To help ease the workload, Pflanzer talked to officials at Westwood College, an Anaheim computer school, into supplying students to work on the computers.
"How much money and time do I put into it?" he asked, rhetorically. "This is OK to a point, but I have to protect our (public relations) clients."
Finding people and companies willing to donate their old computers has not been hard, he said.
"We swap out our computers every two years to get upgraded. It just made sense to me that there would be computers lying around that we could access.
"I hope we roll out 100 computers a month and we fill up every school that asks for them," he said.
To donate a computer to Pflanzer's project, call (714) 521-4400 or (714) 521-5111.
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Mike Sprague can be reached at (562) 698-0955, Ext. 3022, or by e-mail at mike.sprague@sgvn.com.
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Contact
Keith Mason PRDNA Public Relations 5741 Beach Blvd. Buena Park, CA 90621 Phone 714-521-4400 Fax 714-521-3400 keith@prdna.com |
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