Tablets for the Oldsters

This week I’m volunteering at my favorite non-profit Elderhaven, setting up a wireless network and teaching the elderly residents of the care home how to Skype.

We originally thought of this project several months ago when a grant opportunity was announced for Southern Arizona-based non-profts that deal with the issues of aging. The idea lay dormant for a few weeks after we didn’t make the grant cut. But the idea had merit, and I decided when trying to do the next annual Arizona Gives Day fundraiser, we should bring the project back. Instead of copying and pasting all the “please donate” text from the previous years, I suggested that Elderhaven take a different approach to donations.

The plan that was formulated included fundraising for the distinct goal of reducing the isolation many of the elderly residents feel in their old age. We wanted to use modern technology to bring a new mechanism for human connection into their lives. And so the plan was born.

We ran the Arizona Gives Day campaign not as a general fundraiser, but as a platform for money to go directly to the “Tablets for the Elderly project at Elderhaven.” Over the course of 24 hours we raised $1425 towards the project. Although this amount was only a fraction of the way to our goal, it was enough to adopt Plan B where yours truly installs the wireless network and develops the training.

 

It’s going to be a great week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Here’s what Plan B *really* looked like until I flew in this AM)