Aging Well: News & Insights for Seniors and Caregivers
- Craig Clark, known as the Tech Fairy, has donated over 700 refurbished laptops to those in need in Sarasota, Florida.
- His initiative began after discovering Nextdoor, which connects neighbors, making it easier to find people who need assistance.
- Clark emphasizes that his project relies on community support from those donating their used devices, highlighting collective kindness.
Craig Clark may call himself ‘the oldest computer technician in America’, but everyone else calls him the Tech Fairy because of all the wishes he has granted to strangers.
In his field, as a technician, people sometimes give Craig their old computers after he sets up their new ones.
Then about 8 years ago he began to take those used laptops, rebuild them, and find someone who needs a computer because they can’t afford one. It suddenly became easier to find people in need once Craig discovered Nextdoor—an app and website where neighbors in localities talk to neighbors who live in the same area.
“I began posting pictures on the website of the smiling folks with their “new” laptops,” he told GNN.
“Then somehow I branded myself as the ‘Tech Fairy’. I have no memory as to why I did that, but it turned out to be a stroke of genius.”
People started hearing stories about deserving people who’d received a free laptop from the Tech Fairy—and readers began contacting Craig, who is now 79-years-old, to offer up that old laptop they had in a closet.
After 8 years, he has re-homed over 700 devices around Sarasota, Florida.
He’s received some notoriety, from local news—and nationally too. In 2022, ABC News flew Craig to New York to appear on Good Morning America, along with a family who’d been gifted one of his laptops. All four children now call him ‘Grandpa Craig’, which still makes him cry. (Watch the video at the bottom…)
“Being the Tech Fairy is a fairly expensive project,” he told GNN. “For security, I install a new SSD hard drive into every computer I rebuild—and new batteries are often required—but the smiles in the pictures I take are worth the investment.”
Most of the pictures are of smiling workers at fast food restaurants or convenience stores. One reason is that his primary career was as an executive for 7-Eleven convenience stores.
“I made good money on the efforts of thousands of terrific store employees making minimum wage. I was making 10 times the money as these folks and they were working much harder than I was.”
But, he’s been steadily giving back ever since—like a Pied Piper of Good Deeds.
KINDNESS RETURNED: Years After She Saved a Magpie Bird it Returns the Favor Saving Her Life After She Fell from Window
“Yesterday I drove to an organization that helps women recovering from addiction. They have 2 women graduating from their program this week, and as they start their new lives each now has a beautiful semi-new laptop to get them started.” (One of them, Amber, is pictured below.)
“I get a lot of credit for this project but I never forget that this effort is possible only because of the selfless folks who donate their used devices to me. It’s a true community project…”
MORE KINDNESS FOR STRANGERS: Dry Cleaner Gives Away his Services to Unemployed Folks Headed to Job Interviews: ‘Just Pay it Forward’
Watch the story from ABC’s Good Morning America, from 3 years ago…
SPREAD THE OPPORTUNITY To Others in Florida By Sharing This on Social Media…
Read the full article on the original source
