About Us
History of Retro-Tech Electronics, Inc.
Picture Taken On Grand Openning
Founded by the friends and
former staff members of Central Illinois Access, Retro-Tech Electronics, Inc.
was officially Incorporated on September 1, 2004. CIA had found an important
niche in providing recycling and technology services to save refurbish-able
electronics form the landfill and repair them for reuse by the low income and
people with disabilities.
Their important mission
must not disappear as it has formed an important lynch pin of
The following is a short
history of Recycling for Illinois/Retro-Tech Electronics and the various
programs and organizations that came before.
CIA had brought together the
Mag-7 Computer Users Group, KidDreams, and Dave Loudenburg’s Medical Equipment Loan Program all together
under one umbrella.
The Mag-7 Computer Users
Group was started by 7 computer hackers 4 years earlier. When the group was
approached about working with individuals with disabilities, the Hacking
stopped and training took over. The first meetings were held at the
Central Illinois Center For Independent Living but
after 6 months they were moved to PARC to be able to handle the large attendance
we had. The computer training and computer placement program come
directly from the Mag-7 portion of the group.
KidsDreams was a program ran by Ron Boyd and
gave computers to chronically ill and dying children. Within three days
of the incorporation, Ron Boyd lost his fight against the disabling conditions
that he contracted while serving in
David Loudenburg
started David Loudenburg’s Medical Equipment Program
with the help of local medical equipment companies Mr. Loudenburg
amassed a vast inventory of durable medical equipment. By joining in on
the creation of Central Illinois Access, Inc., Mr. Loudenburg
expanded the ability of being able to secure medical equipment and place it
just as fast. In 2001, due to poor health, David Loudenburg
turned this part of the organization over to Infinitech
of UCP of Chicago.
Due to the medical equipment side
and the computer placement side, adaptive equipment was an area that Central
Illinois Access, Inc. was bound to end up in. Working with Centers for
Independent Living throughout the state of
Electronic Recycling came about from
a need to find new sources of donated computers. By holding a collection
day on November 15th, 2001 (National Recycling Day) we kicked off a
tremendous amount of interest in our recycling efforts. This interest has
led to doing monthly, quarterly or semi-annual collection events for the
following cities:
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Copyright by Retro-Tech Electronics, Inc. 2004-2007