Volunteering Again, for the First Time

I have quite a bit of experience volunteering. When I was 10, I volunteered at Seattle Childrens' Theatre for 10 seasons, ending in 2005. Also when I was 10, I volunteered at the horseback riding facility where my sister takes classes, although that largely ended around late 2003 or so. Since 2005, I have been working on the restoration of a neighborhood park, leading monthly work parties and doing some administrative work.

Today, I started another volunteer job. I'm working with computers, something I enjoy doing. I started working for an outfit called Interconnection, a nonprofit that takes donated computers, refurbishes them, and gives them out to schools and nonprofits around the world. They also sell computers, monitors, and various components in their retail store, and sell basic computers to low-income people and students for only $135. Good price, if you ask me. For volunteers that work 30 or more hours, you can get a free computer, which is a nice bonus. That's not why I volunteered, though; I have two computers already. I'm just doing it for fun.

Currently, I'm working in a facility called the teardown area - where all volunteers spend their first 10 hours working - which is what it sounds like. I take old CPUs, and separate them into their component parts, then sort those parts into bins. For a typical computer I worked on, the component parts are as follows:

• Outer casing, typically plastic and metal. Plastic is separated from metal.
• Mother board. The RAM, CMOS batteries, and processors are removed.
• Hard drive, CD drive, and sometimes a floppy drive.
• Fans for the CPU and case.
• The power supply.
• And finally, the various wires and cables from inside the case.

My first computer took me around 45 minutes to dismantle. The last one I did before I left only took around 20 minutes to take apart. I think I'm going to like it here. Next time, I'm going to see where this rumored "free food for volunteers" is. Oh yeah, and I'm going to bring a decent pair of gloves. Computer parts are sharp.