• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
    • Stephen Foskett
      • My Publications
        • Urban Forms in Suburbia: The Rise of the Edge City
      • Storage Magazine Columns
      • Whitepapers
      • Multimedia
      • Speaking Engagements
    • Services
    • Disclosures
  • Categories
    • Apple
    • Ask a Pack Rat
    • Computer History
    • Deals
    • Enterprise storage
    • Events
    • Personal
    • Photography
    • Terabyte home
    • Virtual Storage
  • Guides
    • The iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Guide
      • The iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Troubleshooting Guide
    • The iPad Exchange ActiveSync Guide
      • iPad Exchange ActiveSync Troubleshooting Guide
    • Toolbox
      • Power Over Ethernet Calculator
      • EMC Symmetrix WWN Calculator
      • EMC Symmetrix TimeFinder DOS Batch File
    • Linux Logical Volume Manager Walkthrough
  • Calendar

Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

Understanding the accumulation of data

You are here: Home / Everything / Enterprise storage / Donate Your Swag to School Kids In Need

Donate Your Swag to School Kids In Need

July 28, 2010 By Stephen 4 Comments

Donate your conference backpacks to school kids in need!

Trade shows are a veritable swag-fest, some with great loot and some with junk. I’ve been critical of the booth babe and chotchkie phenomenon, but my friend Kevin Houston has a better suggestion: Donate your (useful) swag like backpacks and pens to school kids in need.

Kevin first suggested this to me at HP Tech Forum after I refused the giveaway backpack I wouldn’t have used. It turns out that he’s been doing this for a while, with a focus on the backpacks so many vendors distribute. It’s funny – my own son uses my VMworld 2009 backpack and I have to admit it’s a well-built and useful bag. But I hadn’t thought of the underprivileged kids out there who could use it even more.

Did you know that 41% of kids in the United States come from “low-income” households? According to the NCCP, over half of the kids in Arkansas, DC, and Mississippi are under financial stress. I’m sure back-to-school time is a serious disappointment for many kids whose parents can’t afford a new backpack, pencils, and other school supplies. Many don’t realize that school districts can’t afford enough supplies either. In fact, it’s so common that the IRS allows teachers to deduct up to $250 in out-of-pocket expenses to equip their classrooms with basic supplies.

So I’d like to echo Kevin’s call: It’s time for us techies to lend a hand and support education. The next generation needs us! When you come home from VMworld and similar events, load that backpack up with school supplies (notebooks, pencils, scissors, and the like) and donate it to a local school. They’ll be glad for the help!

Photo by Kevin Houston

You might also want to read these other posts...

  • ZFS Is the Best Filesystem (For Now...)
  • Ranting and Raving About the 2018 iPad Pro
  • GPS Time Rollover Failures Keep Happening (But…
  • How To Remove Raw Images From Apple Photos and iCloud
  • What You See and What You Get When You Follow Me

Filed Under: Enterprise storage, Everything, Features, Gestalt IT, Personal, Virtual Storage Tagged With: backpack, conferences, featured, HP Tech Forum, Kevin Houston, poverty, school, swag, VMworld

Primary Sidebar

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting…
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim…
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you…
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.

Rudyard Kipling

Subscribe via Email

Subscribe via email and you will receive my latest blog posts in your inbox. No ads or spam, just the same great content you find on my site!
 New posts (daily)
 Where's Stephen? (weekly)

Download My Book


Download my free e-book:
Essential Enterprise Storage Concepts!

Recent Posts

What You See and What You Get When You Follow Me

May 28, 2019

GPS Time Rollover Failures Keep Happening (But They’re Almost Done)

April 6, 2019

Ranting and Raving About the 2018 iPad Pro

November 11, 2018

The 2018 iPad Pro is a Beast!

November 9, 2018

Add a Mirror to an Existing ZFS Drive

December 11, 2017

How To Remove Raw Images From Apple Photos and iCloud

July 24, 2017

Recalling An HP MediaSmart Server To Active Duty

July 21, 2017

Go Get a ProtonMail Account and Protect Your Online Life!

July 19, 2017

ZFS Is the Best Filesystem (For Now…)

July 10, 2017

Co-Processors, GPGPU, and Heterogeneous Computing

June 26, 2017

Symbolic Links

  • The Angry Co-Worker

    Brian Gleason

  • NetApp Introduces Keystone Purchasing Model

    Chris Evans

  • Internet of Tires

    Ray Lucchesi

  • AWS Launches & Previews at re:Invent 2019 – Tuesday, December 3rd

    Jeff Barr

  • Owning the Technology Ecosystem

    Chris Evans

Featured Posts

Replacing Google Reader With Feedbin and Reeder

May 5, 2013

Co-Processors, GPGPU, and Heterogeneous Computing

June 26, 2017

Scaling Storage At The Client

November 25, 2013

Why Big Disk Drives Require Data Integrity Checking

December 19, 2014

Marketers: Fudging the Meaning of Buzzwords Matters (To You!)

December 2, 2015

We Live in the Future: Robotic Cat Litter Boxes!

May 8, 2010

Instapaper for iPad and iPhone Enhances My Web World

June 1, 2010

Nimble Storage Rolls Out an All-Flash Array

February 24, 2016

Not All 802.11n Networks Are Alike

July 2, 2011

Fasting to Mitigate Jet Lag: Surprise! It Works!

February 11, 2013

Copyright © 2019 · Log in