Plano: Businessman refurbishes machines for needy recipients

07:40 AM CST on Monday, January 2, 2006

By ANDREW D. SMITH / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

Despite his recent award from the League of United Latin American Citizens, Warren Harris dismisses hero talk.

He calls himself a pragmatist.
As the owner of the Computer Wizard service-and-repair shop in Plano, Mr. Harris, 55, understands the dangers of discarding computers.

"A conventional monitor contains anywhere from seven to 10 pounds of lead," said Mr. Harris, a Frisco resident who devised a creative recycling program, one that helps the poor as well as the environment.

Oddly, Mr. Harris' beneficiaries owe much to MC Hammer, the once-popular rapper from Oakland, Calif.

It was while building a recording studio for Mr. Hammer in 1991 that Mr. Harris decided to leave his longtime profession of sound engineering for computers.

BRANDON THIBODEAUX/DMN

'If a good organization tells me that someone needs a computer, I try to supply a omputer,' says Warren Harris, who was honored for his nonprofit work by the Collin County League of United Latin American Citizens.

"All sound engineers switch eventually," Mr. Harris said. "It's not because the money is better. It's because of the musicians. Normal people can only tolerate so much of their strange behavior and their tendency to sleep all day and work all night."

In 1994, Mr. Harris opened the original Computer Wizard, near his home in Marin County, Calif. The business prospered, but Mr. Harris closed it just five years later.

He and his wife had tired of California's cost of living and decided to move to Plano.

Shortly after opening a new Computer Wizard in Plano in 1999, Mr. Harris began considering a question customers often asked him: What's the proper thing to do with an old computer?

He decided that the ideal solution would let people donate old computers to a charity that would refurbish them and donate them to poor families. He did not know of any such charity, however, which is why he decided to start his own.

"I asked a bunch of [existing charities] to lend me their [nonprofit] status, which allows donors to write off donated computers as charitable gifts. They told me to get lost."

Mr. Harris then investigated the tax law and decided to set up his own nonprofit group, Foundation for Uniting Technology with Recipients. Once the organization was up and running, worthy groups found their way to Mr. Harris.

"I was already trying to round up computers for poor students, so when I heard about Warren, I gave him a call. We've been working together ever since," said Geegee Thorn, a parent liaison at Mendenhall Elementary School in Plano.

"I can hardly explain how much good his work has done. About 80 percent of the kids at our school qualify for free or reduced lunch, so there are a lot of families that would never be able to own a computer without generous people like Warren."

Most have gone to Mendenhall students and their families, but Mr. Harris has also worked with churches and other charitable organizations.

"If a good organization tells me that someone needs a computer, I try to supply a computer," Mr. Harris said.

Demographics at Mendenhall dictate that most computer recipients are Hispanic families, which is why Mr. Harris received the award this October for Community Service by an Individual from the Collin County branch of LULAC. The staff at Mendenhall nominated him.

"I don't often hear from the families that receive my computers, so it was nice to receive the award. It was tangible proof that I'm making a real difference," said Mr. Harris, who has become a victim of his own success.

Indeed, with old computers arriving faster than Mr. Harris can recycle them – cleaning the hard drive and fixing broken hardware and software generally take several hours per computer – a backlog of some 50 machines has piled up.

"I just hope someone with computer skills reads this and decides to pitch in," said Mr. Harris, who advised possible donors or assistants to visit www.futr.org.

Andrew D. Smith is a Dallas-based freelance writer.

Dallas Morning News, January 2, 2006 reprinted by permission