Operation Homelink is a non-profit (501-C3) organization with a mission of facilitating e-mail communication between American service members deployed overseas and their families back home.

Most members of our military have e-mail access on ships and even in desert outposts. Oftentimes, however, lower income families are not able to afford a computer and must rely on expensive phone calls or slow postal service to stay in touch. Operation Homelink addresses this problem by providing a refurbished computer to the spouse or parents of troops within the lowest level pay grades (E1-E5). With help from supporters including Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, MasterCard, CDW, and Southwest Airlines , to date we have successfully linked over 2,500 military families. We have recently expanded our mission to include donations of laptops to wounded service members receiving treatment at military hospitals and VA centers throughout the United States.

Large donations of used computers are needed for us to help the thousands of qualified military families wishing to communicate with their deployed loved one or wounded soldiers in need of laptops. While we very much appreciate every intended donation, operational cost efficiencies require that we only accept a minimum of 50 laptop computers. Donated units must have hard drives intact, and preferably have all components included (power cords, CD drives, etc). Computers should be in good working order with the following minimum specifications: Pentium 3/1.2 Gghz.

Professional refurbishment services are provided by our technology partner (TechTurn, Austin, Texas, www.techturn.com) who perform this same work for some of the largest, most security- and environmentally-conscious corporations in the U.S. They coordinate all aspects of the donation process, including the documentation, and guarantee all information is completely wiped from the hard drive. The donating corporation's willingness to ship the laptops to our Technology Partners maximizes the amount of computers we can distribute. All computer donation and shipping costs are tax deductible. Donors of 100 laptops or more can specify the specific military unit or geographical area where computers are sent, creating an additional avenue of support for their local military community.

Maximizing the number of families we “connect” is achieved by using proceeds from the sale of the laptops to acquire refurbished desktop computers. While the exact specifications of the donated laptops determine the net amount of resulting computers, past donations have resulted in the delivery of as many as two desktops per donated laptop.

Operation Homelink is looking for “A Few Good Corporations” willing to step up in support of our troops bravely serving our country by linking them with their families via e-mail.

More information can be found at www.operationhomelink.org .