A couple of days ago, I launched the Bishop Maginn Laptop Campaign, a project to raise money for 26 $208 Acer Chrome laptops. They have no technology at all in the classrooms, the refugee children desperately need some.

(I have talked (at great length and for several years) with a number of tech companies, and I am sorry to dispel the myth that they love to give free computers away to small schools with poor kids.  The paperwork and application process is astounding, the tech makers  give the computers they want to promote or unload, not the ones these kids necessarily need. They favor large institutions with lots of potential customers.)

School officials have done their homework, as have I, they are familiar with this Acer model, it works well for basic tasks, and is accessible for students with language issues and no history of tech use.

In the meantime, there are several good and easy ways to donate a computer to the school. Donations to the school are tax-deductible, and can be made directly: Computer Fund, Bishop Maginn High School, 75 Park Avenue, Albany, N.Y., 12202.

The school plans to put up a donation page on its website, but it’s just as easy to send a check.

You can also buy a computer directly on Amazon – a good price – and have it shipped to the school c/o Mike Tolan, Principal, Bishop Maginn High School, 75 Park Avenue, Albany, N.Y., 12202 (518 463-2247).

A small number of these computers will be posted on the new Bishop Maginn Amazon Wish List starting next week.

For small donors who wish to contribute but don’t have much money – we cherish you here – feel free to send your donations to me via Paypal, [email protected]. Or send your check to Jon Katz. Maginn Computers, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. Please mark “”Bishop Maginn Computers” on your checks.

For $208 laptops, small donations add up. For larger donations (one AOG member is sending $1,000), the contributions are tax deductible. This is important, transformative. We will need about $3,500 more, I’m not sure what donations are coming into the school yet.

By September, our goals are this: For Bishop Maginn to have a first-rate art program, a music program with instruments and a choir, and accessible, efficient laptops, at least one in every classroom. I hope to sell more of the student’s paintings. We are also supporting some of those refugee students whose parents can’t afford to pay any tuition at all, and buying sneakers, boots and warm clothes for the winter.

We’ve already kept three children in the school. Thanks so much for your support.