J-TEK to host Recycle Drive to benefit KidsTLC

J-TEK will host a recycle drive for Johnson County and surrounding residents to bring their unused, outdated technology items to be properly disposed of the first week of January in 2012. The technology can range from a number of different items. (For information on what is accepted, please visit www.thejtek.com/kidstlc)

The company is hosting the event at their office on Saturday, January 7th 2012 from 9:00am until 12:00pm.

“This is the best time to host a recycling event to allow people to dispose of their outdated technology in a proper manner, as it’s right after the holidays are over and many technology items were likely replaced over the holidays this last year.” Jason McAninch, President of J-TEK said.

For more information on the recycling drive, please visit www.thejtek.com/kidstlc

July 23, 2011

GQ Magazine’s Gentlemen’s Fund Nominees include Jason McAninch

GQ asked America to nominate a man who strives every day for the betterment of society through charitable work, volunteerism, and community involvement. The judges are currently selecting the five most outstanding submissions as finalists.  Out of the submissions, Founder and President of J-TEK, Jason McAninch has been nominated in the Gentlemen’s Fund for 2011.

View his bio on the GQ Magazine’s site by clicking here

Jason McAninch is a young entrepreneur and community leader. In 1999, at age 13, he started J-TEK, a computer consulting and IT support business, and today many know it as the premier computer and IT support for Johnson County and surrounding areas in Kansas. The company has become successful and stands out to many because of his unique, friendly personality and ability to help clients of all levels use technology.

Growing up, Jason learned the importance of giving back to the community and helping others. As an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America, Jason became a leader in his community by helping and serving the needs of others. It was this same importance of giving back to others that gave him the ambition to create a way to give back to the community with his business.

In January of 2010, he started a non-profit known as the J-TEK Foundation, with the vision of giving back to the community by helping children and students with the entrepreneurial drive and spirit, achieve and realize their true potential. His company J-TEK, currently funds the non-profit from proceeds collected from the company’s technology recycling services.

The recycling service helps reduce tech waste in the area from ending up in landfills and ensuring it is disposed of properly, alongside helping build a scholarship fund for area students. Jason has coordinated several recycling events throughout the community and rose funding for schools that participated in the recycling drive.

After winning the Top 30 Under 30 in Kansas City charity event in September 2010, Jason’s award money went to an organization that is close to his heart now and has become his charity of choice. The charity is called Kids TLC and is located in Olathe, Kansas. He now has shifted the direction in which the J-TEK Foundation operates, by donating the proceeds from the recycling events to Kids TLC, which helps children in crisis get assistance and a place to call home when the odds are against them.

His humble personality is what family and friends admire most. They say that he will go out of his way to help anyone. He has a passion for entrepreneurship and has a natural ability to lead and inspire others. Jason volunteers in his community as a Youth Friend for middle school students during the school year. In addition, he plans to begin speaking and presenting to local high school and college students about to help motivate them to succeed.

Entrepreneur Scholarship Contest is a Success

On Friday, November 19, students from around the Kansas City area competed for a scholarship sponsored by the 2010 SHBC (Small & Home Business Connections) Expo event, held in Olathe, Kansas.

Jason McAninch with the three winners of the 2010 SHBC High School Entrepreneurship Contest

Over 1,500 people attended the Expo event itself, but the high school scholarship competition was awarded to three lucky students who submitted their business plan to the judges, prior to the event, to compete for prize money.

The judges consisted of our own Jason McAninch, Caylon Huckabay of Huckabay Holdings, and Don McNulty, all of whom own successful businesses in the Kansas City area.

During the event, students presented an oral presentation to a classroom of peers, along with the three judges, to pitch their idea and business plan. Of the three finalists, two businesses were lawn and landscaping businesses, and the third was a Mexican bakery.

$500 in scholarship award money went to the student with the Mexican bakery business, which was a business she had already started and wanted to continue to operate. Second prize of $250 went to the student who had already started a lawn and landscape business and also wanted to grow and expand it, and third prize for $100 went to the other student who also pitched to start a landscaping business.

“I’m glad to see an interest in young entrepreneurship in the area! It’s how I started J-TEK, and I think that students today, more than ever before, are starting their own successful businesses and it’s awesome to be a part of that!” McAninch said.

Technology recycling drive to benefit Starside Elementary

Article Posted From De Soto Explorer.com’s website

Written by Laura Herring, De Soto Explorer

To view the article on the newspaper’s website, click here.

Starside Elementary and Jason McAninch of J-Tek are teaming up to run a two-day technology recycling drive at Starside Elementary.

Unwanted computers, cellular phones, printers and other devices can be brought to the school from 9 a.m.-8 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 20 and from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 21, and for a small fee McAninch will take the items to be recycled. All proceeds from the drive will go directly to Starside Elementary for its student fund.

McAninch, a former IT employee of the district, started his independent IT business over the summer with the idea for the drive already in his mind.

“I like helping people and I especially like helping kids, that’s why I loved working at Starside so much,” McAninch said.

The dates of the drive coincide with parent/teacher conferences at the school, an arrangement both sides are hoping will increase drop-offs.

“We’re hoping parents will just gather up all that old technology stuff we all have hanging around the house and just bring it with them when they come for their conference,” said Starside Elementary Counselor Paula Henderson.

The most any item will cost to be recycled is $15 and McAninch will be accepting cash, credit and check payments. Receipts will also be available for tax write-off purposes.

“I’m hoping we can raise at least $1,200 for the school,” McAninch said. “I know this is a really supportive community and that the parents are very involved.”

McAninch is also guaranteeing that all information will be striped from the machines before they are recycled.

“I know a lot of people worry about sensitive information that may remain on hard drives but we’ve got that under control,” McAninch said. “I run each hard drive through a special program my company has that wipes everything clean.”

He also promises the machines will be broken down and recycled and not sold to other countries.

“The company I use to recycle old technology is very good about breaking down computers and not just junking them out to other locations. I can promise that donated materials will be sent to a recycling company in Iowa and won’t ever leave in one piece.” McAninch said.

Starside Elementary students are going to be as involved in the drive as possible as well, according to Henderson.

“We’ll have some kids out on Wednesday pushing carts and giving directions and on Thursday some will be helping curbside,” Henderson said.

This is the first time the drive will be taking place but if it is a success, both the school and McAninch would like to make it a yearly event.

“We’re just so excited for this opportunity,” Henderson said. “It’s a win/win situation really, the students and the school are benefiting from the donations and the environment is benefiting from these items being recycled properly.”

AVG 2011 Released Today with New Features

One of the most popular anti-virus software application’s out there these days is AVG Anti-Virus.  Many of you probably have it installed on your computer and use it for anti-virus protection.  Today, Grisoft, the software manufacturer, released it’s newest version of the anti-virus software,AVG 2011,  which promises to deliver better results and increase performance.

The software features several improvments, including a faster install, and smart scanning technology, which allows it to scan certain files once and if not infected, it will skip over them the next scan, unless there has been a change in the file.  This creates a huge boost in performance, because it doesn’t have to scan EVERY file on your computer for viruses, but instead, just the files that are modified after it does the first original scan.  Because of this, you’ll notice your virus scanning times will dramatically decrease.

One of the best features it has is also protection against threats that happen over social media (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, ect).  These threats seem to be hitting our clients like crazy, so we’re hoping that this newest release of AVG will help eliminate some of the security flaws of social media and prevent viruses, spyware and malware from infecting PCs.

Let us know what you think of the new AVG 2011 and any features you like or dislike.

You can download the latest version of AVG 2011 on our website, by clicking here: DOWNLOAD AVG 2011 NOW