Closing the Digital Divide: E2D partners with Boys & Girls Club of the Piedmont to provide free laptops

Posted on by Mike Fuhrman

Special to Iredell Free News

More than 300 Dell laptops were distributed to area residents at the Boys & Girls Club of the Piedmont located on Cochran Street in south Statesville.

Citizens, ranged from parents with school age children to senior citizens, attended the event, which was sponsored by E2D, a nonprofit based in Davidson. The Greater Statesville Rotary Club partnered with the Boys & Girls Club to host the event. 

E2D was founded when an enlightened 12-year-old girl asked her parents how her classmates could do their homework without access to computers. It was the next question that sparked the creation of E2D. Franny Millen asked her parents: “What are we going to do about it?”

Ten years have passed since those questions were presented to her parents. Since then E2D has distributed over 32,000 computers in and around the Charlotte area.

“We are grateful for this new partnership with the Boys & Girls Club and Statesville Rotary,” said Pat Millen, Franny’s father and the co-founder and president of E2D. “Today’s turnout underscores the need to close the digital divide in Statesville.”

Clarissa Young, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club, said she hoped the laptop distribution was the beginning of a long-term relationship with E2D and the Rotary Club.

The Boys & Girls Club was recently awarded a grant from the United Way of Iredell County – Endowment for the Future, which provides start-up funds to begin Students-in-Training (SiT) at the Boys & Girls Club this spring.

The mission of SiT is to refurbish computers that were donated to the club, load those devices with new software and redistribute them to those in need. A ribbon cutting for SiT is planned for April.

Brady Johnson, director of development for the Boys & Girls Club, said the laptop distribution was an inspiring event.

“The event not only reinforced the fact that the digital divide is significant in Iredell County, it also introduced us to a new partner who is willing to help the Boys & Girls Club of the Piedmont build our own version of E2D.”