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Programmer's Key Focus Is Helping Students

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 5, 2007

Updated: 09/01/2007 01:55 pm

BRANDON - Before John Devine showed up at the door, the elementary students at Hillsborough Baptist School in Seffner were sorely in need of computers for their classrooms.

With the addition of four computers donated by Devine Computer Solutions and more on the way, the school's computer programs are clipping along, said Sheri Barber, office manager for the school.

Devine Computer Solutions is a nonprofit company that takes in donated computers, wipes the hard drives clean, installs software and finds them new homes.

Most of the computers go to underprivileged students who qualify for the federal free lunch program and don't have computers in their homes. Others go to needy schools and missionaries working in foreign lands.

The work comes with a price. Devine, who has operated up to now mostly by word of mouth, started last week doing reduced-price computer repair and service to help offset the cost of his charity. He also will offer a data backup service.

Devine and his wife, Tammy, fell into the charity work through their other charitable endeavors. They went from delivering boxes of food to the needy to delivering refurbished computers.
John Devine said friends and acquaintances knew he had a degree in computer science and gave him computers they no longer needed.

'They just started donating them to me so I could distribute them through our church,' he said. The Devines attend Gardenville Baptist in Gibsonton. 'The whole thing just snowballed.'

When the donations got to be too much for their home in the Orient Park area, John Devine rented a warehouse on Kingsway Road in Brandon to continue his work. He is hoping soon to add a reception area.

He accepts computers, LCD monitors, memory, hard drives, other equipment and tax-deductible donations to offset the cost of repairs. Parts he can't reuse, he breaks down and recycles.

'We can use about 50 percent of what we get in,' said computer technician Michelle Bove, who works with Devine.
CRT monitors are also accepted, but a $10 donation is requested to offset recycling costs. In July, Devine said, he recycled more than two tons of metal and more than 200 pounds of circuit boards, keeping the metal and dangerous chemicals out of the landfill.

This summer, Devine has put some 75 computers into the hands of those who could not afford them, he said.

He said that because he guarantees hard drives will be wiped clean to U.S. Department of Defense standards, he is getting more donations lately.

'I do the wiping myself, and I guarantee it,' he said.

Devine can be contacted at (813) 685-2272 or dcs @prodigy.net. Secure online tax-deductible donations can be made by going to www.paypal.com and typing DCS@prodigy.net in the account name field.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 657-4532 or at yhammett@tampatrib.com.

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