CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – We take for granted that everyone has a computer. Those of us who have one don’t exactly feel like we’re living in the ‘laptop’ of luxury.
Pat Millen, one of the co-founders of the E2D, says too many can’t afford one.
“The cost of computers, quite honestly, is very expensive,” he told Queen City News.
“The things you can’t do if you do not have a computer are pretty important,” said Millen.
The nonprofit’s goal is to bridge the digital divide between the haves and the have-nots in Charlotte area schools.
“These computers go to underprivileged communities who need computers to end the digital divide,” said Anthony Calloway, who supervises the staff in the lab where donated units are processed.
“Any company that wants to donate us computers, we will take them and refurbish them,” he explained. “Quality control them to make sure everything on the OS is working properly; the camera works, the headphone works.”
E2D receives laptops from corporations ranging from Bank of America to Lowes, but they also accept individual computer donations.
The impetus for the effort was 13 years ago when a then 12-year-old posed the question that floored her family.
“So, I went home to my parents, and I asked them the question of how my classmates get their homework done if they don’t have a computer in the home,” recalls co-founder Franny Millen. “And they said, ‘They probably go to the library or sometimes they can’t get it done.’ And I said, ‘That’s not fair, so what are we going to do about it?’”
Her dad could have easily left it there, but the conversation had a lingering impact.
“And if you’re a parent, you know that sometimes these things come at you and you hear them, and sometimes they fly right past you,” Pat says. “Well, that one hit us squarely in the head and my wife and I started talking about digital equity.”
Pat eventually gave up his sports marketing career and now works side by side with Franny.
E2D gave out about 150 laptops in the first year. In comparison, the tally in 2024 alone was more than 11 thousand.
“And it’s there’s to have. It’s amazing; we get so many thank yous and so many happy smiling faces,” said Calloway.
Queen City News
Faces of the Carolinas
They’ve delivered more than 55 thousand computers statewide and recently helped Helene victims in Western North Carolina.
“Very soon thereafter, people needed to get back to jobs,” says Pat. “And too many of them had soggy, wet computers.”
“We were ready to step in when they needed us,” Franny said.
Workforce development is an extra benefit of what they do. E2D gives jobs in the lab to high school and college students interested in tech careers.
“We hire them, we train them, and they become superstars,” Pat says.
“But it’s been so helpful, and because we have so many corporate partners, they look to us a lot for employees as we move throughout our careers,” said Calloway.
To this day, Franny’s question “What are we going to do about it?” is the core of the E2D operating system.
Sometimes your kids say the darndest things. In this case, the family took those words and ran with them.
“It blows my mind that this is how far we’ve come and we’re not ready to stop,” she says.
