CARMEL MOUNTAIN RANCH -- Jenny Dudas, a computer sales representative for IBM, first got the idea for a charitable organization that donates used computers to children of military families about 1 1/2 years ago during the Christmas season.

She remembered the troop deployments on the evening news, and the images of the soldiers saying goodbye to their families.

"You watch them get together as they're about to deploy, and you just get so emotional," she said.

Many military families were poor and couldn't afford computers. Between the vagaries of armed services mail and the soldiers' demanding schedules, many of these children wouldn't hear from their parents for months at a time.

"I know how these kids feel," Dudas said. "It affects your friendships, your school, your life."

Dudas' sense of empathy was acute, and rooted in her own childhood -- in the yearning she once felt between the infrequent arrival of letters from her father, who was deployed overseas in Vietnam.

She saw her friends buying new computers and wrestling with the chore of disposing of the old ones. Why not donate them to the children?

"This seemed like such a natural, easy thing to do," she said in a recent interview by phone about her fledgling organization, Kids in Touch. "There's just no reason a kid can't keep in touch with their parents."

Dudas' idea could easily have died the way many such good ideas do, from neglect -- but she stuck with it, and over the next eight months did the legwork necessary to get her idea off the ground.

"You would not believe how hard it is to do something good," she said. "It takes a long time and a lot of effort to get things lined up where you are a legitimate 501(c)3 and you can actually start conducting business."

A grant from Microsoft helped pay for the bundled system software -- Windows 2000 -- and Dudas avoided costly licensing fees by turning to StarOffice, an open-source suite of office programs. Children's games helped round out the package.

Her son, Michael, a full-time college student, handles the hardware and software configuration.

"It takes him about an hour to set up each computer," Dudas said. "He's automated the task with a network installation server."

She estimates that he puts in about 20 hours a week; she adds an additional 10 to 15 hours of her own, on top of the 60 hours she sometimes puts in for IBM.

They have donated 27 computers so far. Parents interested in getting a computer for their children as well as those who have computers to donate can contact the group at www.kitcommunications.org or call (858) 337-7355.

"I have about 11 more I'm going to be giving away," she said. "But I have 150 in the garage."

Kids in Touch is small for now -- just Dudas and her son, and friends who pitch in to handle the occasional large corporate donation. But she hopes to turn it into something bigger, if she can get more donations and volunteers.

"The more families we can provide for, the better," she said.

Dudas' father immigrated to the U.S. from Hungary. After seven years, he became a naturalized citizen and joined the Army.

"I just remember he was so proud to serve in the Army," she recalled. "I remember specifically Vietnam because I was 10 -- I was old enough to realize: 'Dad's gone. He's off fighting in a war.' "

There were no computers then, and weeks went by between his letters home.

"I just remember being so lonely and so isolated and just wondering: 'Is he coming home? Where is he?' " Dudas said. "To this day, I think I'm a different person because I lost that time with my father."

In 1971, Sgt. Michael Dudas returned home safely from Vietnam. Three months later, he lost his life in a freak mishap at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., while installing a tower antenna.

"If I can help families keep in touch and put a smile on a child's face, that is all the payback I need," Dudas said. "I feel like my cup is full. I've done something good, and I think my dad would be proud of that."

- Contact freelance writer Andrew Peterson at andrew.a.peterson@cox.net.

On the Net:

http://www.kitcommunications.org