It was an ordinary day. Opened my morning LNP Lancaster Online newspaper and read the headline...TECH SUPPORT! That was all that was necessary! Story told about one of our finest colleges in the county, Elizabethtown College, donating computers to one of the world's most stricken nations, Ukraine! Yeah, I know there will be those that will read this and complain that the computers weren't brand new, but hey, after pushing the keys on any computer for a few days will make that computer second-hand. Well, Elizabethtown College sent a mixture of 93 used computers, screens and mice to Ukraine which has been devastated by a horrible war. Can you imagine your city, town, state or country being pounded day after day by bombings? Talk about being disrupted by war! Well, a Mr. Andrew Kinsel, founder and owner of the Ukrainian nonprofit organization Ukraine Protection and Development has been facilitating the donation of Elizabethtown College computers to Ukrainian students who have had their technology devices stolen and damaged by Russian soldiers. Mr. Kinsel realizes that the computers aren't the top of the line computers, but to students in the Ukraine, they are like "gold." Many in the United States are spoiled with the technology that is available to them and find they need the latest computer on the market, be it a year old or just a few weeks old. So, sending a computer that might not be a brand-new computer is still like "god" to Ukranians; especially after being reconditioned. Ecologically, it's also good since it's taking fairly new computers and giving them to somebody that really needs them. Close to 17 million people have been displaced with another 62,000 that have been killed in the war that Russia has waged against Ukraine in the last 16 plus months. Many others have fled in the same amount of time, but needless to say they haven't taken their computer with them! Students in Ukraine are now attending school amid air raids and artillery fire, which can make study almost impossible. How would you like it if your school's walls were shot full of holes or the roof blown off? Some schools have suffered rocket attacks and Ukrainian language books burned. Mr. Kinsel started the Ukraine Protection and Development fund in May 2022. Adopt a School, the program that Elizabethtown is participating in, will help the students in Ukraine. One computer can help five to 10 students. In some locations, no more than five students can gather in one area. The organization also has donated more than 1,000 pieces of electic equipment to soldiers on the front line, raised over $500,000 to supply body armor to military units and has donated over 100 electric generators to villages damaged by the Russians. One of the schools that has been donating items has been Elizabethtown College. Kinsel contacted Mr. David Sloan who in turn contacted Elizabethtown College through former LNP LancasterOnline editor Ernie Schreiber and secured a rental truck to pick up the college's donations. Mr. Sloan than boxed up the equipment and delivered it to Dnipro LLC, experts in shipping materials to Ukraine. The Elizabethtown equipment will be shipped June 5 and should arrive sometime in mid-July. Once the equipment arrives in Ukraine, Mr. Kinsel will work with a computer engineer to make sure the computers are in good working condition. Kinsel then gives computers to those he deems are most in need of them. In a war-torn country, delivery of computers is anything but safe! Recently, a Russian drone dropped two grenades near a vehicle that was making a delivery. Donations like those from Elizabethtown can be a life-saver to students in Ukraine. E-Town should be proud of themselves and their entire student body for the donations that they have been making. These donations can make all the difference to the students in Ukraine. Good job...well done Etown! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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