Steve Whalen hands Chromebooks to students at a Boston school. He plans to make similar donations Friday at Edward Little High School in Auburn. Sean Martin photo

AUBURN — Edward Little High School graduate Steve Whalen is a managing partner at a Boston area realty firm these days, but Friday he’ll be back in Auburn. 

Whalen, a 1988 graduate of EL, is coming home with a mission: to deliver Chromebooks to every immigrant student in this year’s graduating class. 

Why? The philanthropic endeavor hearkens back to last year’s article in Boston Globe Magazine, which highlighted what it described as racial incidents at the school where immigrants were targeted. 

The magazine report focused on ELHS as an example of how racial tensions have become severe across the nation at historically white high schools.

“This report was heartbreaking to ELHS graduate Stephen Whalen,” according to a news release from Sean Martin, vice president of Regan Communications. “Steve Whalen employs many immigrants at his company, City Realty Group, and is a passionate advocate for immigrants and all people from underserved communities. He and fellow CRG Managing Partner Fred Starikov founded its own nonprofit,
City Kids, to provide Boston’s inner-city children with educational
resources to help them thrive at school.

Whalen, who has made similar donations in the Boston area, reached out to Edward Little and to the immigrant advocacy organization, Maine Community Integration, and made arrangements to provide the Chromebooks here “and to send a message that there is no place for hate anywhere,” according to the release.

The Chromebook donation will take places at the track and field area of the school Friday at 4 p.m.


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