VentureTech VARs Give Helping Hand To Women's Shelter

Solution providers of a regional chapter of Ingram Micro's VentureTech Network have donated more than $30,000 worth of IT equipment, labor and services as part of an "IT makeover" for a New York women's shelter.

VentureTech's Big Apple Chapter, comprised of 35 solution providers, is implementing the equipment Friday and on Saturday plan to unveil the project in New York.

The VTN members received products from 3Com, Lenovo, Microsoft, NComputing, Netgear, SonicWALL, Symantec, V7 and Xerox to use in the project, which also includes three years of IT support services to be provided by members of the Big Apple Chapter using Ingram Micro's Seismic managed services offerings.

The equipment and services computers donated as part of the VTN chapter's new Big Apple Cares outreach program will help fund New York's Voices of Women (VOW) Organizing Project with leadership training, development and support of survivors of domestic violence, as well as the organization's outreach efforts.

"For our members, the ability to utilize up-to-date computers to further their efforts in stabilizing their lives by finding a home, looking for jobs, or keeping up with their educational coursework, helps them to move further away from violence and is a dream come true," said Raquel Singh, executive director for VOW, in a statement. "We are sincerely grateful to the Big Apple Chapter and proud to be the first recipient to benefit from the Big Apple Cares initiative."

The Big Apple Cares was started by solution providers Chelsea Technologies, Comtel Global Services, Lincoln Computer Services and Micro Strategies and the organization plans to help other local organizations throughout the year.

Voices of Women was chosen as the first recipient because they are a customer of one of the VTN members, who knew they needed a technology upgrade but couldn't afford one, said Dara Orsini, a client solutions executive at Micro Strategies Inc., Denville, N.J., one of the Big Apple Chapter VARs.

"With the way the economy has been, we felt it was a time to reflect on what you have and what other people might need. We have the time and resources and we thought it would be a great way to give back from our [expertise]," Orsini said.

The Big Apple Chapter's work is part of a larger initiative by VentureTech to give back to the community. VTN solution providers in Canada, the Maple Leaf Chapter, organized a fundraising campaign to support the Breast Cancer Society of Canada. The chapter started Clicks for the Cure, which raises money through online sales of breast cancer awareness t-shirts.

Other chapters plan to detail their own charitable initiatives at next month's VentureTech Invitational conference in Florida.

"With this initiative, we're not only challenging other members of Ingram Micro's VentureTech Network, but the IT industry at large to get involved and click for the cure," said Terry Buchanan, vice president and chief technology officer of Oshawa, Ont.-based Conpute and president of VTN's Maple Leaf Chapter, in a statement.

VentureTech has steadily increased its charitable work over the last couple of years after initially holding a children's bike building contest at a conference in New Orleans. The bikes were donated to children of that city.

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