Tech Toss

Last week was a busy one for us. We finished building and delivering equipment packages for four nonprofits: LifeSpan Autism Center, Butte Built Bots, IlluminAid, and the Media Freedom Foundation (Project Censored). Altogether, we donated approximately $9,745 in refurbished technology last week. That included 22 desktop computers, 38 monitors, 20 keyboards, 20 mice, 34 video cables, 34 power cables, and 7 3D printers, all headed to organizations serving our community.  If you want to learn more about the nonprofits we helped, keep reading!

- Butte Built Bots (FRC Team 4643 / IRON Cal) – A FIRST Robotics Competition team that gives students hands-on experience in engineering, programming, CAD, manufacturing, and robotics while preparing them for careers in STEM.

- IlluminAid – a Chico-based nonprofit that equips organizations in developing countries with portable video technology and training, helping local leaders create educational content that improves community health, agriculture, education, and economic opportunity.

- Media Freedom Foundation / Project Censored (Project Censored) – A nonprofit media literacy organization that promotes independent journalism, researches underreported news stories, and teaches critical thinking about the media.

- LifeSpan Center – A program of Little Red Hen Nursery that provides day services, life-skills training, and community opportunities for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Our mascot, Boo, popped into Tech Toss today to make sure everyone was working hard (and to demand attention) 🐶

We are still reeling from Retro Reboot. Planning our grand opening was truly a community effort. There are so many people to thank and so much to celebrate.

Shout out to our current Chico State interns who put together awesome exhibits and were there all day Saturday helping with set-up. Thank you to some of our past interns who also volunteered their time.

Thank you to Rusty Vine Studio for designing an epic video display wall, Corey for putting together the gaming tournament, Miloh for volunteering time and offering support, Jesse for coordinating the Beer Booth (your sangrias were amazing!), Ken and Archer for directing traffic, Shawn, Denise, and Hugh for greeting folks at our info booth, Liam for capturing video and Julianna Rose for snapping photos, and a special thank you to Lucia Mercado, aka , and her team, for partnering with us and for helping us bring the vision for our opening to life.

Thank you the people and businesses who donated to our fundraising raffle: The Bookstore, Equilateral Coffee — Chico, CA, The Plant Barn Nursery & Gifts, Made In Chico, Chico Chai, Little Red Hen and Lupita. A big thanks to our nonprofit and business partners who showed up and brought fun activities and displays as well.

AND LASTLY, thank you to the loooong list of other volunteers and supporters who helped get Tech Toss up and running, and helped us during months of prep and promotion- the list is endless and we could not be more grateful.

We are back at it this week. Recently, we received a big donation which included office desks, which the Little Red Hen happened to be in need of. So they came by, we helped load up their truck, and now they have plenty of sturdy desks to use for their educational lab.

It always makes our day to help out other local nonprofits!

Saturday’s event was everything we could have asked for. So many of you helped make our grand opening amazing, and the list of people to thank goes on and on (more on that to come). An estimated 800 community members came by to show support and celebrate with us, which is wild! Everything about the evening was special. There were art stations, and other nonprofits, and a donation collection for the Venezuelan earthquake relief efforts. We had educators there and local musicians and plenty of great food vendors. Some folks made new friends, and some re-connected with friends they hadn’t seen in a while. There were smiles all around and we couldn’t be more grateful.

This opening meant a lot to our team and we hope you all feel the passion and care we have for our community. Thank you Lunar Market Chico for partnering with us and making our “big party” so much better, and thank you Julianna Rose for the great photos!

If you want to know what’s next for Tech Toss, join our newsletter using the link below. Soon, we will be sharing more about our story and more information on what our goals are for the rest of the year.

https://forms.gle/tLp3D6BpdZnBpDDh6

Today is the day! It’s been a tough week, and we wrestled with celebrating while our city also grieves, but now, more than ever, we need to ban together as a community. There’s good happening in Chico too, and we hope everyone walks away from this event feeling welcomed and inspired. See you at 6pm Chico.