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Light Drizzle Eliminating the electronic waste
Hillel camp and HASC combine to recycle
Middle school-aged children from Hillel Day Camp, which is held on the Lawrence campus of the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR), along with kids and young adults 12 to 21 from the Hebrew Academy For Special Children in Woodmere, joined together to recycle used electronics on Aug. 13.
The idea for the partnership came from Sean Bokor, a HAFTR alum who returned this summer to intern under the school’s Information Technology department and its director, Benny Gross. Laptops, monitors and modem towers were put into crates and donated to the Woodmere school. The camp and HASC used the Brooklyn-based business Ecycling and consulted with educational technology expert firm Double Down Technology of Plainview to help with the recycling needs.
“We donated to HASC tons of technology, which they are taking this off our hands,” he said. “They will recycle the parts, or repair or use what they can. They will take everything apart in a workshop to decide what they can use.”
Ari Solomon, Hillel’s director, said that both groups of children benefitted from the collaboration.
“We are donating our used technology to them and they will try to reuse as much as possible,” he said. “This is great for us because we are being environmentally responsible, and the HASC kids are learning a trade, how to fix technological tools.”
Michael Richter, a counselor at HASC, said he thought that the students working with the technology and electronic parts were great for practicing their skills.
“For me, what’s great about this partnership is that these guys are working and using their hands to dismantle or resell what’s reusable, separating parts into boxes and sorting, which is a more challenging activity for them,” he said. “They’ll get paid every two weeks and feel good about themselves.”
