The festivities of the holidays can serve as a bitter reminder to foster youth that they are separated from their own families. But Anchorage Representative Les Gara says, with a laptop of their own, foster children can keep connections alive with friends even if they move from home to home.
Gara is launching the holiday effort in cooperation with the non-profit Facing Foster Care in Alaska. The computer drive is in its’ second season, after a successful first run. Over the past year the drive resulted in over 60 matches for youth who use laptops for school and social connections.
16-year-old Anna Redmon got a laptop some months ago
Those wishing to donate a laptop can contact Gara’s office. Laptops suitable for the program must not be more than four years old, and have word processing programs and internet capability.
Gara says he was a foster child himself for a time, so he knows the importance of supporting youth in foster care.
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APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
