- March 19, 2026
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Before you discard that old laptop sitting on your shelf that just won't turn on, you may want to think twice. According to the Sarasota Technology Users Group, it may be able to change someone's life.
In the early 2000s, the organization established the Refurb Project, in which volunteers refurbish used laptops for community members in need.
Fixing around 2,000 laptops each year, the group passed the 25,000 mark at the end of last year, and by the end of February, had offered an amount totaling 25,415, says Bill Hutchinson, the project's leader.
The process is as simple as turning in a laptop computer to the organization's workshop on Sawyer Road.
Volunteers will wipe the data, replace components if needed, and install Windows 11 and Microsoft Office Suite, providing the laptop back to an individual or to a local organization.
The organization was founded by Saul Lowitt, who remains involved, for a cost of $90 during the 1980s. The effort helps educate the public on software for Windows, and other topics.
Hutchinson says the refurbishing efforts are an attempt to bridge the digital divide, with computers being one of the essential resources to navigate today's world, including finding a job.
“I'm a retired software engineer, so I had the background, but it's helping people. That's the bottom line," said Hutchinson. "Everybody here, I think, just enjoys helping other people."
The group works closely with local nonprofits including Goodwill Manasota, the Patterson Foundation and the Children's Guardian Fund.
It has also offered laptops to other organizations like Faulhaber Fab Lab, Girls Inc. and the Sarasota Housing Authority. But another of its major partnerships is with the Sarasota County School District.
Originally, he said, school efforts were run by a for-profit company before the nonprofit was asked to take over several years ago. He estimates it provided 600 laptops last year to public schools, not including charter schools and Manatee County's school district, which it increasingly serves.
The effort, run by volunteers who work about three days per week, operates off donations and occasional grants, with its biggest fundraiser being The Giving Challenge, which this year is held April 15-16.
Those donating laptops don't need to worry about wiping their data, he says. The volunteers will take care of the procedure, and he says as the group's reputation grows, it has been increasingly trusted by the community to fulfill the task.
Laptops will be equipped with the Windows 11 operating system and a package of software that includes Microsoft Office Suite, licensed from Microsoft. For vintage Core 2 laptops too old to run Windows 11, the hard drive will be wiped and removed and other parts of the laptop recycled.
However, volunteers must ensure that for each computer, the drivers, which are the specialized software that act as a translator between software and hardware components, correspond to the hardware.
They can do this efficiently by using standardized images of the operating system, with particular specifications that they keep on file for different laptop models. Hutchinson says this makes it easy, for instance, to refurbish a set of laptops from Sarasota County that are all the same model.
A dead hard drive won't stand in the way; if a laptop will not boot, volunteers will start the operating system from an image on a USB drive, often repairing the drive through Windows' Disk Check utility.
Items accepted, which can include PC or Mac products, aren't limited to laptops, with the group also accepting phones, tablets, routers, switches, keyboards and mouses.
The greatest expense, Hutchinson says, is parts, specifically batteries, even though part replacements aren't typical. Last year, they averaged about $1,200 per month in parts, Hutchinson says, while their rent of the space is $1,000 per month.
Not all spare parts can be for refurbishing, but they can be kept out of landfills, and Hutchinson notes a recycle bin in the workshop, whose size he estimates at a little more than a cubic yard.
“Pretty much once a week, we fill that up. At times it's more than that,” he said.
As they move forward, one of Hutchinson's major concerns is finding an updated version of Microsoft Office Suite, as the 2019 version they currently supply lost support from Microsoft in 2025.
He says they will need a version that is disconnected from Microsoft's server and able to be stored on the laptop. If that cannot be obtained, they will look into including the free, open-source program LibreOffice.
What is always the highlight for him, he says, is numerous messages from organizations and people in the community, thanking them for their efforts.
Volunteer Bill Crowe, a former employee of IBM, like Hutchinson, says he likes being involved due to the ability to help the community.
He says just recently, he gave a laptop out to a woman who asked when she had to return it. When he explained to her that she didn't, she started crying.
"That's why we do it," he said.
