The nonprofit organization Kids in Touch recently gave away 31 complete computer set-ups to children of military families from Camp Pendleton and Miramar.

Another 71 families added their names to the waiting list for a free computer. More than 138,000 U.S. troops are currently serving in Iraq. Many of those troops are from San Diego, but being thousands of miles away doesn't mean their kids can't stay in touch with them.The most practical way to communicate daily is via email; all that's needed is a computer and an Internet connection.

"Kids in Touch is a nonprofit organization that was started to help the kids who have deployed military parents, so they can e-mail them from home -- daily, if they want to," said Jenny Dudas, Kids in Touch founder. The computers are donated. "I ask corporations to donate their depreciated assets," Dudas continued. "A lot of companies just throw their computers away or sell them to recyclers. "

Kids in Touch is continuously seeking donations of gently used computers from corporations in order to replenish its inventory. Sustaining this program relies on the generosity of corporate computer and financial donations. Northrop Grumman, Qualcomm and several other organizations have already made very generous corporate donations, but they need more to keep this program rolling on. In addition to corporate sponsors, Microsoft gave Kids in Touch a grant to use its operating system.

Kids in Touch provides gently used (in good condition) computers and monitors with Microsoft Windows 2000, Internet Explorer and OpenOffice applications preloaded on each computer. OpenOffice provides word processing, presentation and spreadsheet programs in its bundle.

For more information on Kids in Touch, visit the Web site at www.kitcommunications.org, or contact Jenny Dudas, 858.337.7355, jenny@kitcomm.org or Les Edelson, 858.634.5217, les@sextoncommunications.com.