Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words – and 2004 has
been an action-packed and successful year for Senior Connects since
we were able to help many seniors, middle school kids, and underserved
families with elementary school students.
 |
 |
| In 2003, Senior Connects started teaching at the Forum
at the Crossings with one volunteer and half a dozen students.
During this process, a training manual was developed from many
of the “lesson learned. |
2004 began with an expanded presence at the Forum in
Indianapolis, as we began to integrate new volunteers into Senior
Connects. Seen here teaching and watching are volunteers Matt
May, Stafford Brunk, Chris Gecewicz, Daniel Kent, and Kyle Egbert.
|
 |
 |
| A community ascertainment indicated
that there were well over 10,000 seniors that were underserved
since they had limited or no access to computers, Senior Connects
made this an early priority. Partnering with municipalities, businesses,
schools, churches, libraries, and hundreds of residents, Senior
Connects began to receive hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
computers. |
The Carmel Clay Friends of the Library
was especially generous, donating 80 computers to Senior Connects. |
 |
 |
| Many trips were made back and forth from the library
to one of the garage storage facilities, and this process took
hours and hours to complete. |
Dads like Mr. May, pitched in and made multiple trips
back and forth to the library. |
 |
 |
| Caravans of five vehicles snaked through the loaded
to the brim with computer components. But before this could take
place, they all had to be carefully loaded in the trucks, vans,
and cars. |
Just when it seemed like we’d never get done,
Mustafa loaded the last computer to a van, and we were done! |
 |
 |
| We were done moving them, but then there were stacking
them on top of the hundreds of computers that we had previously
received. |
As the computers poured in, basements, garages, living
rooms, and hallways all became computer warehouse and holding
facilities. Fortunately, we all have “forgiving parents”
that tended to overlook the increasing stockpiles of computers.
Next we began to refurbish the computers, erase the hard drive,
and prep the computers for their new homes at senior citizen facilities.
|
 |
 |
| After completing a computer, it received
an official Senior Connects seal of approval. |
The number of facilities that we taught at continued
to expand, as Kim Taylor and Amy Bramer invited Senior Connects
to teach at HCR Manor Care. |
 |
 |
| Typically, the first class held was one where a computer
was dissembled and pieces of it were passed out to the residents
so they’d lose their fear about a computer being “fragile. |
Next, one-on-one training would follow. Since the average
age of our “pupils” is 87 years young and some are
into their mid-90’s, we found that one-on-one training was
the most effective approach. |
 |
 |
| How long does it take to teach a senior
citizen that has no computer experience to being email and Internet
savvy? It depends – but typically we spend up to five months
working with each senior. We don’t graduate as many seniors
as we’d like – but our success rate is very high!
Repetition is important and a pat on the back also helps –
it’s the same way that everyone likes to learn when we are
hard at work at middle and high school. At Summer Trace, we build
a networked public computer lab with four computers, and an additional
computer in their library. |
 |
 |
| Rosewalk on Main was another facility where a five unit
computer lab was networked with DSL. Almost 40% of the residents
signed up to take classes! |
Through our partners at Prime Life Enrichment, we continued
to receive additional computers – they contributed to our
stockpiles in various garages and basements. |
 |
 |
| And we partnered with Asset Forwarding, an environmentally
safe electronic disposal company whose employees spent months
helping Senior Connects deliver computers across Marion County
to independent and assisted living facilities! Without Mr. Vander
Kooy’s help, we just couldn’t have done it! |
Finally we moved hundreds of the computers to a centralized
warehouse. Fortunately, all of our Mom’s were amazing patient
with the masses of computers taking over our homes. Senior Connects
partnered with Asset Forwarding, and they distributed computers
that Senior Connects had refurbished. Delivering 20 computers
to the 2,000 residents at Crestwood Village and Suites pushed
Senior Connects over the 10,000 seniors that had received enhanced
or their first computer labs. This was cause for a handshake! |
| |
|