Salt Lake City – United Way of Salt Lake (UWSL) today announced it received a donation of 42 iPads – valued at nearly $20,000 – from Toyota. The iPads will be used to further United Way of Salt Lake’s community-based partnerships that connect nonprofit and community partners, parents, educators, and students to advance core educational outcomes.

“United Way is honored to receive this generous donation from the Toyota Corporation. These iPads will help ensure students and families are able to stay connected to the world around them, and provide high-quality educational opportunities for children, as well as employment and community opportunities for parents,” said Bill Crim, president and CEO of UWSL.

The iPads will be distributed to community schools throughout Salt Lake County where UWSL works including, Cottonwood High School, Canyons School District’s Refugee Program, South Kearns Elementary, and South Salt Lake’s Family Independence Initiative to name a few. The iPads will be used both during classroom hours and in afterschool programs, to support robotics, coding and STEM education, language instruction, and to help better connect with parents and partners throughout the school community.

“Access to proven technology such as iPads is critical to the success of students and adults in today’s world, and what better way than to partner with United Way to ensure this technology is more easily accessible by teachers, students and families who can benefit from it the most,” said Mark Miller, Founder and CEO of Mark Miller Dealerships. “We are pleased to help facilitate this gift to help UWSL create lasting change for so many kids and families throughout Utah.”

Donation highlights include:

South Kearns Elementary will receive 11 iPads for its summer school and after-school programs that focus on robotics, coding, and video game design. Additionally, the iPads will be used by teachers during class for coding and robotics lessons.

Cottonwood High School will receive three iPads for its Afterschool at Cottonwood program to explore options for enrichment activities such as movie-making, as well as for students who aren’t able to finish internet-required homework before the library closes at 4 p.m.

South Salt Lake will receive seven iPads for its Family Independence Initiative, where they will be used to track families’ progress in community participation, education, child development, income, savings, and other signposts of a successful life.

Canyons School District will receive five iPads for its refugee program, as well as access to software that will translate English into the students’ native languages. This will provide equity of access to technology for educational purposes, and make it easier for the refugee students to find online connections to the community.

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United Way is working to create long-term change by harnessing the power of nonprofits, government, corporations, and thousands of individuals to work together and solve the most difficult problems we face as a community. You can be a part of the change and help put #UtahKidsFirst. Learn more at uw.org or our blog.uw.org.