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Connections (and a big day on campus) [2013-04-06]

It would be nice for a small non-profit like Reneal IEO to be able to plan donations and income, but more often they come like unexpected bolts of lightning following a series of seemingly unrelated connections.  It proved so again on this trip.  Through the kindness of a Rotarian in Southern California with whom we had connected back in 2006 (and who spent the war years hiding in the hills above Compostela!), Neal and I attended a meeting of the Rotary Club of Cebu three weeks ago at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel.  Their normal meeting is on Thursdays at noon, but they had a special going-away party on a Tuesday evening to honor the general manager of the Marriott, a club member who was transfering to the Manila Marriott at the end of March.

 

In the early years of my career I spent a lot of time on the road, with the Albuquerque Marriott becoming a sort of second home to me.  As a result I had formed a highly positive impression of the service and integrity of Marriott Hotels in general, and it was exciting to hear more about the Marriott as it is operated in our beloved province of Cebu.  We had a nice chat with the general manager and enjoyed the hospitality of the Rotary Club.

 

As we were heading back to Compostela after we left, Neal suggested that maybe we contact the Marriott, just to see if they might have some used computers they were looking to dispose of.  I sent an inquiry the following day and much to our delight, we got a quick affirmative response.  As the general manager noted sagely, “Timing is everything in life” and Marriott had up to 15 used computers and monitors that they could provide to Compostela National High School.  They would even deliver the units to Compostela!  This is no small matter, since the school has no transportation of its own that could pick up the units.

 

Following a series of e-mail interchanges with the Director of Human Resources at the Cebu City Marriott, the turn-over was scheduled for last Thursday morning.  This was the same day as distribution of report cards to students and their parents as well as a lunch for teachers co-hosted by the PTA and us, so the campus was throbbing with activity when the two Marriott vans pulled up.  The Vice Mayor of Compostela was in attendance, and we had a ceremonial passing of a keyboard from Marriott to Reneal IEO to the municipality of Compostela to the principal and PTA of Compostela National High School.  Each participant had a chance to say a few words, and then we shared a delightful lunch with all of the teachers and the PTA board.  To say we were thrilled to have the Marriott contingent visit the campus is an understatement!  Neal immediately got a couple of the “new” Marriott computers up and running on the system, so the Marriott folks could see the performance.

 

There is now a beautiful stack of 15 computers, monitors, keyboards, and mice sitting in the IT Lab ready for deployment around campus.  Reneal IEO is thrilled to have facilitated this transfer of obsolete equipment from Marriott Hotel of Cebu City to a school that will give it new life for students and teachers.  Marriott has actively lived its value of “serving the world” and in turn Reneal IEO can uphold the Marriott value of “acting with integrity” by using this hardware with open source software that is legal and not pirated.

 

Organizations that are interested in exploring a computer hardware donation to Reneal IEO can send inquiries to contact.reneal@gmail.com.  There are several projects in the works for 2014 in the Philippines as well as the 2013 Tanzania projects, and donations are needed to make these a reality.