The Giving Tree

Free Bytes 

Most people can’t imagine life without computers. Computers have provided learning opportunities to children and adults alike and have made work easier to complete.  However, when money isn’t in the budget to provide enough computers, small businesses—like non-profit groups—sometimes do without them. One 12-year-old boy from Atlanta, GA, realized that many non-profit groups couldn’t afford to buy computers. So, in 1992, Charlie Shufeldt and two of his friends, Josh Silfen and Owen Boger, created Free Bytes to provide computers to educational groups and charity organizations.

Charlie and his friends collected computer equipment that people and corporations did not need anymore. Sometimes the equipment they received was not in very good, or even usable, condition. Volunteers, like high school students and youth group members, restored the computers and equipment. The newly refurbished computers were built personalized according to the needs of each non-profit organization.

Some of the early organizations that received computers and equipment from Free Bytes include the YWCA and Computers for Classrooms. Free Bytes worked with the State of Georgia Governor’s Office from June of 1999 to March of 2000 to provide more than 3,000 computers to non-profit groups in the state of Georgia.

Free Bytes also realizes the educational opportunities computers provide for children and adults can have with computers. Because of this, Free Bytes also provides computers and computer training to children and families who can’t afford computers for their own individual use.

Know someone under the age of 18 who has started their own charity? If so, let us know!