D. JACK ALKIRE, THE PANTAGRAPH
When Luc Ballantini left last year for a Peace Corps assignment in Fiji, he knew the location would be quite remote and far from a lot of modern tech.
But he went with a purpose: to help the people of Wailotua Village No. 2, a mountainous village some two and half hours from the biggest city, Suva, in any way he could.
Ballantini’s work with the Peace Corps is geared toward helping the village develop a sustainable plan for economic growth, but there’s another side to his work there, one outside the Corps.
It draws on his previous work with his father, Terry Ballantini, chief operations officer for Normal Gadgets, a technology repair and resale store at 802 S. Eldorado Rd., Suite A2, Bloomington.
Now, the father-son duo are gathering laptops from Central Illinois and, after setting them up with the latest Microsoft software, are sending them to Luc Ballantini’s rural outpost in Fiji for the local school there.
“It’s just a wonderful charity event. And the school is right here, and the school needs the laptops,” he said during a video chat with The Pantagraph.
This isn’t the first time that Normal Gadgets has undertaken such an effort, having sent a number of laptops to Ghana in 2018. The current project currently has 18 laptops, but organizers are hoping for about 25 to 30 before the machines are shipped.
“It’s going to help them (the students) be more literate with technology,” he said. “That’s one of the biggest things is learning how to use Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel or learning how to surf the web.”
Normal Gadgets store manager Benjamin Wells is helping clean the laptops, wipe the memory and install the new software.
“Anything newer than 2010 should be fine” for donation, he said. “Anything that can handle Windows 10 and the most recent versions of Office.”
They also accept Apple devices and Chromebooks, Terry Ballantini said.
A GoFundMe online fundraiser (bit.ly.laptops4fiji) has been set up to collect the estimated $1,500 shipping cost. Those interested in donating can also contact the Sunrise Rotary Club by email at bnsunrise.rotary@gmail.com.
The Ballantinis and Normal Gadgets are accepting laptops for a couple more weeks, but it will still take months, and a lot of money, to ship them to the island nation.
Still, Luc Ballantini is optimistic about their purpose.
“It doesn’t matter when we get them. It’s going to take a month, two months for them to ship over anyways. As long as we get them,” he said.
Wailotua District School serves the people around Wailotua Village Nos. 1 and 2, some 1,000 people, he said.
“They all have phones, but none of them have an actual computer that they can use,” Ballantini said.
So, giving laptops to the school can serve two purposes: teach school children how to use the technology, but also allow the public to rent computer time for things like resume building or technical training.
“So, what they can do, is they can go to the school and pay $1 an hour, $5 an hour, whatever the school thinks is appropriate,” Luc Ballantini said.
If that idea comes to fruition, “then we can start working on workshops … on resume building or like Excel, learning how to write an essay on a computer.
“To go further out than that — learn how to take apart a computer, if something’s wrong with it, learning how to fix it just in case you have one in the future,” he said.
After six years of working with his father taking apart and fixing gadgets from cell phones to computers, Luc Ballantini is primed to help students and community members alike navigate technology repair.
While this would be extracurricular from his Peace Corps duties, Luc Ballantini said this work helps the Peace Corps’ mission of community economic development — his job on the island.
These computers are “things that developing-nations’ students, the skills that they need, this is the first step for that — getting them the tools to actually do that,” he said.
HOW TO HELP
To discuss donating a laptop, contact Normal Gadgets at 309-807-3333 or bring it to their store at 802 S. Eldorado Road Suite A2 in Bloomington Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
To donate towards offsetting the cost of shipping, please contact Normal Gadgets.
