Craig Clark may call himself “the oldest computer technician in America,” but in Sarasota, Florida, everyone else knows him as the Tech Fairy, because for the past eight years, he’s been sprinkling magic into people’s lives, one laptop at a time.
It all started when Craig, a longtime computer technician, noticed that customers would often give him their old devices after he set up their new ones. Instead of letting them gather dust, Craig began refurbishing the laptops and giving them to people who couldn’t afford one.
“I began posting pictures on the website of the smiling folks with their ‘new’ laptops,” he told GNN. “Then somehow I branded myself as the ‘Tech Fairy’. I have no memory as to why I did that, but it turned out to be a stroke of genius.”
Thanks to the neighborhood app Nextdoor, it wasn’t long before word spread. Stories of the Tech Fairy’s kindness inspired locals to dig through their closets and donate their old computers. Over the years, those donations have turned into more than 700 devices re-homed across Sarasota.
But it’s not just the number, it’s the faces. Most of Craig’s photos show smiling workers from fast food restaurants or convenience stores, a connection close to his heart.
“I made good money on the efforts of thousands of terrific store employees making minimum wage,” said Craig, who was once an executive for 7-Eleven. “I was making 10 times the money as these folks and they were working much harder than I was.”
That’s why he’s never stopped giving back. Just this week, Craig delivered laptops to two women graduating from Prodigal Daughters, a program for women recovering from addiction. “As they start their new lives each now has a beautiful semi-new laptop to get them started,” he said.
Of course, it’s not without effort. “Being the Tech Fairy is a fairly expensive project,” Craig admitted. “For security, I install a new SSD hard drive into every computer I rebuild, and new batteries are often required, but the smiles in the pictures I take are worth the investment.”
And those smiles have carried far. In 2022, ABC News even flew Craig to New York to appear on Good Morning America with a family who had received one of his laptops. The four children he helped now lovingly call him *“Grandpa Craig”, a nickname that still brings him to tears.
Through it all, Craig remains humble. “I get a lot of credit for this project but I never forget that this effort is possible only because of the selfless folks who donate their used devices to me,” he said. “It’s a true community project.”
The Tech Fairy’s magic is proof that sometimes the smallest acts, like dusting off an old laptop, can make the biggest difference.
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