Thurston students refurbish, donate computers to help local families

A stack of unused hardware in a Thurston High School lab is now helping send working computers into Lane County homes, where a laptop can decide whether a student finishes homework, a parent applies for work or a family reaches school and support services.

What began as a refurbishment idea in 2023 was reimagined after computer science teacher Ben Barrett took over the program in September 2025. Barrett and three advanced students, seniors Ivy Wilson and Peter Gault and sophomore Logan Turnbull, turned the project into Tech Turnaround, a hands-on effort that has refurbished and donated more than 20 computers in about a year. The team is working on 16 more before the end of the school year.

Instead of selling the machines for about $30 to $50 apiece, Barrett and the students chose to give them away. Barrett said the people most likely to buy such low-cost computers would probably need that money for food and housing more than for hardware. That decision shifted the project from a small fundraiser into a direct service for families who are already stretched thin.

The computers are going to the Thurston High School Family Resource Center, where they can reach low-income families and McKinney-Vento seniors. Heather Curtis, the Family Resource Education Assistant at Thurston, connected the project with students who may leave school without a Chromebook and need a device as they move into adult life. The Family Resource Center offers free school supplies, hygiene items, clothing and shoes, and also links families to food, housing and job-search resources.

At Thurston, the work also doubles as career training. The school’s Computer Science and Robotics pathway covers software, hardware, websites, networking and security, and includes leadership projects and classes such as microcomputer hardware and computer networks. For Wilson, the project has been personal. She said she grew up in a low-income household and always dreamed of having her own computer, and she described feeling proud that the team’s work can remove barriers for other families in need.

The need is real across Oregon and in Lane County. Oregon lawmakers recently codified protections for homeless students into state law, and they cited 21,122 Oregon students, about 4%, who were eligible for McKinney-Vento services in the 2024-25 school year. Springfield Public Schools’ McKinney-Vento program provides school supplies, transportation and teen drop-in support, while broader digital-access efforts in Lane and Douglas counties continue to focus on underserved households.