Some Misconceptions

It's 5:37am and I just examined each of the 200+ e-mails I've received from prospective donors. What an amazing cross-section of people there are out there! Why did I stay up so late? Because I deeply appreciate everyone taking the time to write and offer what they did. They deserved a response and not just because Xmas is so near, though that's a factor too.

However amongst some people, there did seem to be some misconceptions of me and my little project:

• There is no "organization" with branch offices, colour-coordinated uniforms, a company theme song, and charitable tax receipts. I'm just a guy who wanted to do something good for one family with one computer I was given. This blossomed into 10 families and now possibly 2 more.
• Even if I give up sleep altogether this week - and it's sort of looking like that might happen - I'm just one person trying to make as much of a contribution as I can.
  
• I am not an eccentric millionaire with unlimited time on my hands. Hopefully one day at least two of these three traits will be true, but not yet!
• For this project I'm looking to get working components, not things I'd need to fix. That may change in the future, if I can get a group of fellow techies to meet every few months to help refurbish newly donated computers, but not right now.
• I don't own a fleet of delivery vans that can pick up anything in the Lower Mainland at the snap of my fingers. I realize that no individual e-mailer had any idea of how many others were also writing ... though they do now! :-) But it goes without saying that the more a donor can do to prepare the equipment they're donating, the more time I'll have to coordinate more donations. (I think I used "more" a few too many times in that last sentence!)
• Printers are always nice to donate, if they're functioning properly. A nice touch would be if the donor paid an outfit like Island InkJet to top up the current cartridge to full. Though a few standalone cartridges have been offered, the chances of getting ones that match the donated printers is very slim. For a family on poverty to find $50+ to get a new printer cartridge is a very large burden.
  

Anyhow, as I've said before, there are some incredibly generous people out there. And they're giving me the ability to help put bigger smiles on the faces of a whole lot more children this Xmas. That's what this little project is all about.

But now it's time for me to get some much needed sleep! Good night ... or good morning, depending on how you look at it! ;-)