Mission Statement

Empower Up is a non-profit organization that provides computers, education, job skills training and access to the Internet to those in need by reusing and marketing computers diverted from the waste stream.

Board of Directors

• Leonard Bauhs - Board President
  Leonard is an Systems Administrator for the Washington State Department of Human Services. He is President of Northwest Neighborhood Association, a graduate of the Leadership Clark County (LCC) program and is a member of the City's Green Ribbon Panel and The Columbian's Readers' Advisory Council.


• Trica Morris - Board Vice-President
  Tricia is a Certified Public Accountant and works as a Tax Manager for Schiller & Co. P.C., Tricia is a graduate of Brigham Young University.


• Tanya Gray - Board Secretary
  Tanya is a Waste Reduction Specialist with the City of Vancouver's Solid Waste Department. Tanya participated in the Rotary’s Group Study Exchange with Turkey and an International City/County Managers Association project in Sri Lanka. She is a graduate of the University of Oregon.


• Steve Rusk - Board Treasurer
  Steve works for the Salvation Army as Business Administrator for the Vancouver area. He is a group leader at Crossroads Church in Portland.


• Bill Dudley - Board Member
  Bill is a shareholder with the law firm of Landerholm, Memovich, Lansverk & Whitesides, P.S. Bill is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, Purdue University and the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College. Bill is a member of Rotary International, is past President of the Clark County Estate Planning Council and the Columbia Business Community for the Arts, is past chairman of the Columbia River Economic Development Council and is legal counsel for the Community Foundation of Southwest Washington.


• Terra Heilman - Board Member
  Terra is a Waste Reduction Specialist for Waste Connections, Inc. Terra writes about reuse and other solid waste issues at her blog: reusing.blogspot.com and also tweets with the username @waste_not. Terra has a Bachelor of Science degree from Oregon State University.


• Robert Hughes - Board Member
   

Advisors

• Jim Mansfield - Clark County Solid Waste


• William Hafer - Clark College

Staff

• Oso Martin - Executive Director
  Oso is the former owner of Bear eCycling, LLC. and the founder of Free Geek. Oso has a BS in Architecture from Arizona State University and practiced architecture for 10 years in California and Oregon.


• Jennifer Buschman - Reuse Manager
   
• Shelley Caldwell - Volunteer Manager
   
• Gerald "Jerry" Hatcher
  Recycling Manager
   

History

Empower Up was founded in 2003 as a partnership between Clark County and the City of Vancouver to deal with the growing electronic waste problem in the region. The two local governments teamed up with Clark College, The Columbia Resource Company (Waste Connections, Inc.), the Salvation Army and the Clark County Sheriff's Office to form a partnership to collect, recycle and reuse computers in Clark County.

The program was named CREAM (Computer REuse And Marketing) and beginning in January 2003, the program established permanent collection sites for e-waste within the county and a number of mobile collection events were held each year in various locations. Although the CREAM program’s primary goal was to collect and refurbish computers for reuse, it was anticipated that most of the material donated would not be suitable for reuse. Over the years it operated, the CREAM program took great care to insure that those materials were recycled in a responsible manner. Clark County and the City of Vancouver provided operating funds, Columbia Resource Company (Waste Connections, Inc.) provided waste hauling for waste materials, Clark College students refurbished the computer systems for reuse and Salvation Army Family Services (SAFS) screened potential recipients based on financial need and distributed the completed computer systems. From 2003 to 2008 the CREAM program distributed over 250 computer systems to families in need and diverted over 3.5 million pounds of electronic waste from the landfill.

Since starting operations in the second quarter of 2009, Empower Up has received over 18,000 pieces of donated electronics from more than 3,100 individuals, small businesses and non-profits, including nearly 4,200 computers. Refurbished over 5,000 items for reuse including over 800 computer systems. Almost all performed by volunteers. Volunteers have recycled over 171,000 pounds (85.5 tons) of e-scrap consisting of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, gold, plastic, and leaded glass. Empower Up logged over 9,500 hours of service from 484 volunteers and interns. Additionally, Empower Up has logged over 560 hours of free access in the Internet Café, provided 33 hours of classroom instructional time (22 different 1.5 hour long classes offered from September 2009 through June 2010) and provided more than 60 hours of free one-on-one computer mentoring for seniors.

In April 2010, the organization adopted its new name: Empower Up and the new tagline: Technology Reuse In Action.

Help Support Us

Empower Up needs to raise $40K by years end, please contribute.

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