CAP had a very busy and successful 2003. We donated over 500 PCs to over 50 different non-profits (schools, senior centers, community centers, etc.) in the Cleveland area bringing our total to over 175 non-profits assisted by CAP. See the entire list

Many of these were parts of computer labs that CAP built. Labs really leverage the PCs as dozens of students, seniors and other members of the community can use the PCs in the labs. We network the PCs together and share printers and other devices as needed.

One of our projects for 2004 is to compile a booklet with photos and text of some of the hundreds of success stories CAP has been involved in. I think people will be amazed at the reach CAP has had and the lives that have been dramatically improved.

The efforts of CAP volunteers were recognized internationally when we won the prestigious "Jerry Award for Community Service" at Comdex 2003 in Las Vegas. CAP placed first over excellent programs from San Diego (2nd place) and Baltimore (3rd)

We were able to keep the doors open and the program running thanks to grants from the St Luke's Foundation of Cleveland and a Cleveland Foundation/Adelphia grant. We just learned that we will again receive grant money from this year's Cleveland Foundation/Adelphia grant but less than this year. We will be asking for assistance from St Luke's Foundation for rent, waste disposal, utilities, etc again this year. If you know of other sources of funding, please let us know.

As you know, we are extremely frugal in our spending and make each dollar count. But we do have expenses. For example, we buy legal licenses of Windows software for the PCs we donate - this cost us over $2000 last year. We always need to buy CD-ROMs, RAM, hard drives, tools and so on.

We need to find some other streams of income to keep CAP going and grow it to what it could/should be. One idea is to find some scrap dealers who will pay for our scrap metals. If any of you know of good dealers who may be interested, please let us know.

If you have not yet been tapped out in your end of year/holiday giving, please consider a donation to CAP. We are, of course, a 501c3 non-profit so your donation is tax deductible.

If you don't want to write a check, you can always donate via credit card via the web site. There is a Make a Donation button that lets you securely donate any amount you choose via credit card (we use PayPal for this). I can promise that your gift will be used very effectively.

Please continue to spread the word about CAP and maybe lend a hand sometime in the upcoming year. We have a lot of rewarding projects coming up and always have a need for help.

For example, next week we will be picking up our biggest donation of PCs ever - about 170 PCs from First Energy in Akron (we worked with our pals at National Cristina Foundation in CT to get this). We will again rely on a caravan of volunteer's personal vehicles for the trip (U-haul's get to be very expensive). If you want to join the caravan or know of a truck that we can use, please let me know. You could even cover the cost of the U-haul if so moved.

On behalf of all the volunteers of CAP, I want to thank you for your interest in helping us bring the power of technology and improving the quality of people's lives right here in Cleveland.

Have a great 2004,

Dan

PS We also collected about 500 cell phones to be reprogrammed and used for potential victims of domestic violence.

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