Giving Back: The Iona Group Donates XO-1 Laptops to An Area Daycare

Most all of you may be aware of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program. Well, we have some good news. The place I work at, The Iona Group (we have a new website up, by the way), is donating 5 XO-1 laptops to a low income child care facility in a neighboring community. Very cool indeed. Here the details from the press release:

The community service project Intersection (www.oneintersection.com) and Morton-based creative design firm, The Iona Group (www.ionagroup.com) are donating 5 XO-1 Laptops (a part of the One Laptop Per Child campaign, www.laptop.org) to the low-income daycare center, Bloomington Day Care.

The laptops will be given Thursday, July 17 at 10:30am at Bloomington Day Care in Bloomington (located at 309 E. Wood Street in Bloomington).

The Iona Group purchased 10 XO-1 laptops, 5 were sent to Africa to needy villages and the other 5 delivered to them to gift to children in need in the Central Illinois area. Intersection is a local community service project that longs to bring neighborhoods and people together to find commonality. Intersection recently partnered with Bloomington Day Care to put in a new playground and bike paths this past April and also partnered with the day care center in 2007 by updating playgrounds and facilities. Together, the two organizations will donate the 5 laptops to the daycare center that has very little technology to help children begin to learn the skills of a compute.

The XO-1 Laptop has been called “A unique machine with features created specifically for children of the emerging world.” Both organizations representatives will be at the day care center this Thursday to answer any questions and show the staff and children the new laptops.

I am really happy to be working for an organization that does such great work for its clients and also, thanks to efforts like this, its community.