{"id":72056,"date":"2025-08-10T09:45:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T09:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/72056\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T09:45:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T09:45:03","slug":"baton-rouge-families-receive-laptops-sign-up-for-internet-at-school-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/72056\/","title":{"rendered":"Baton Rouge families receive laptops, sign up for internet at school event"},"content":{"rendered":"

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First<\/a>) \u2014 Families in East Baton Rouge Parish got a back-to-school boost today, walking away with laptops at a fraction of their retail price and signing up for affordable internet.<\/p>\n

The event, hosted by the Capital Area Corporate Recycling Council (CACRC) at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, aimed to ensure that students start the school year with the tools they need to succeed.<\/p>\n

Michael Rachal with CACRC said the mission is simple: give kids the resources they deserve.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart is for the children, and that\u2019s exactly why I\u2019m here. It\u2019s important for these children to be celebrated. It\u2019s important for these children to gain the resources that they need in order to be successful because they are our future. And if we don\u2019t invest in them, how can we invest in ourselves?\u201d said Joy Phillips.<\/p>\n

Back to School 2025: Where to get free school supplies in, near Baton Rouge <\/a><\/p>\n

Back-to-school season can be expensive, especially when families need a working computer and reliable internet. Rachal said events like this help close that gap.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a common misconception that everybody has their own device. Actually, one in four households here in the state of Louisiana do not have access to a computer of their own and are smartphone reliant,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Today, those families have more than just a smartphone to rely on.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we know, you can\u2019t do everything on the smartphone, so you can\u2019t fill out applications. Most time job applications aren\u2019t able to be filled out on phones or doing schoolwork and lots of things that you can\u2019t do on a phone that you would actually need a device,\u201d Rachal said.<\/p>\n

The devices available were business-grade, refurbished, and ready to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cLowest $99 for laptops, $75 desktops, 6999 offers and hotspots. So, we have a program called Connecting Louisiana Families, and we offer internet service for $15 a month,\u201d Rachal said.<\/p>\n

He says the event is about more than just tech; it\u2019s about opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I meet people, even at events like today, I just met a couple of college students. I said this is their first year at Southern and one was at LSU, and they didn\u2019t have a device. So, this is why we do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rachal said plans are already underway to get more devices and internet access into the hands of Baton Rouge students next school year.<\/p>\n

Latest News<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Louisiana First News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) \u2014 Families in East Baton Rouge Parish got a back-to-school boost today, walking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[51710,51712,174,51711,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-72056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-east-baton-rouge-parish","9":"tag-families-need","10":"tag-internet","11":"tag-michael-rachal","12":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}