Connecting Generations – Something to Celebrate

Volunteers for Community Impact (VCI) hosted its Second Annual Cyber-Seniors Recognition Breakfast last month.  The program, which pairs older adult students with young people who volunteer as mentors to teach them technology, highlighted the many participants, sponsors and successes of the program.

The gathering included evidence of the enhanced technology skills acquired as a result of this program.  For example, Harry Candela, a retired Maitland pediatrician, delighted in seeing his first cell phone video played on the big screen for the crowd to see.  A resident of the Plymouth Apartments spoke from the heart when she shared that prior to Cyber-Seniors, “I was a mouse in a closet, and now I’ve bloomed.”  She encouraged her peers to “get out and get moving,” noting what a difference the program has made in her life as it thrust her from her apartment into the outside world.  Another student spoke about how she learned to use Skype by watching her mentors (two brothers), connect with their friends in Lebanon.

The program noted the names of 71 older adult students and 81 young people that have participated in the many sessions held this past year.  Two sessions (at the Winter Park Public Library and Eatonville Neighborhood Center for Families) are currently underway and will run through April.  The program was made possible by a Winter Park Health Foundation grant, jointly funded by the Older Adults and Children and Youth Work Groups.  For more information on Cyber-Seniors, contact Delilah Rivera at (407) 298-4180.