TJ's PC (re)Builder's Club is an eighth period activity where students can learn how to build computers and repair broken systems. They will then donate those refurbished computers to the local community.

Three seniors, Tianhao Chen, James Henry and Connor Humphreys recently help complete a project where they donated several rebuilt laptops to Bailey's Lower Elementary School. They are being put to good use by Bailey's Family Literacy program.

"We cannot begin to thank the TJ PC Builders enough for providing the Family Literacy program with laptops," said Micheline B. Lavalle, a Family Literacy Specialist with the Office for ESOL Services at FCPS. "Most of our families at Bailey's Lower have been listening to our classes on their phones, and some have phones with broken screens so they could only listen to the class. I know that they will be so grateful to receive a laptop. The laptops will make a huge difference for all of our students in our ESOL virtual classes!"

Henry, who is the president of PC (re)Rebuilders mentioned that the club has grown significantly over the past three years. It averaged only 10 signups per eighth period during his freshman year, but now regularly maxes out at 30 signups. 

"(For this particular project) We received these laptops from a combination of government agencies' and local school systems' surplus because they had become obsolete," said Henry. "We've been working on these particular laptops for four years now, so it was really big for us to be able to send them off fully refurbished. We had to replace some batteries, hard drive covers, and more parts, and we installed an open-source version of Google ChromeOS on the laptops."

"PC Rebuilders Club is a place where I can connect and hang out with other PC enthusiasts," added Chen. "It's also a place for me to learn more about PC's as I work on fixing old laptops with the rest of the club members. Seeing the laptops I've worked on being used to help others in need makes me feel happy and proud of the work I've put into the club."

The PC (re)Builders Club wanted to give thanks to its former club sponsor Mr. Ng for helping spearhead this project and looks forward to more projects like it in the future.