In 1990 a California company advertised a mentoring program asking clubs to pay $300 for help with advertising their willingness to help. We decided we could do the same thing and handle our own advertising. In the fall of 1991 the Democrat converted a Letter to the Editor into a few paragraphs announcing our offer. There has been no further publicity except published thank-you letters and word of mouth. Our first "job" was helping the High Bridge PTA Volunteer coordinators set up a schedule spreadsheet.
In 1992 our first major job started, when the NORWESCAP office called for help. They had one computer with an amber screen, and could do little more with it than turn it on. One member wrote a Lotus 123 program to get them started calculating total weights, recording orders, maintaining a mailing list. Presently, John Warsinski, Mike Howell and Evelyn Stewart were spending a lot of time there, building an inventory program, doing a lot of training and most of all urging the directors to buy a good computer and the special software designed to handle Food Bank transactions. For years the club was called upon to make the annual bar chart of pounds of food handled, but now, nearly ten years later, they have several new computers, and experienced people to use them, and are actually moving from the first DOS Foodbank software to a new Windows version.
In the summer of 1994, HCC received the 1994 Outstanding Team Service Award from the Community Services Council of Hunterdon County. It was at this awards luncheon that Dorothy Hartsell, Director of Activities at the Hunterdon County Office on Aging, asked Evelyn Stewart if she would be willing to teach a class in basic computer skills. Evelyn had written earlier to Rosemarie Doremus, Excutive Director of the Office on Aging, offering just to sit quietly and answer computer questions, if the day ever came when the Senior Center had some computers. Dorothy said she had been getting requests for computer instruction for years and had a long list of names. She allowed Evelyn a few more months for recovery from hip replacement surgery and rounded up four AT&T machines. Classes started in September, 1994, with Evelyn teaching 4 days a week, several classes a day. The fifth day she met students at the Family Outreach building, a group of young women working toward the GED certificate, and looking toward employment. Howard Asplen soon started an additional Senior class, followed by Maureen Barron. From then on we recruited students to come back as coaches and then as teachers with still newer recruits as coaches. John Warsinski becamse our hardware expert, constantly doctoring the old machines.
We presently have a faculty of about fifteen, all volunteers, all enjoying the classes greatly. The old machines are gone. The waiting list for the Basics course stays constant at about a year's wait, so we NEED teachers.
We are always recruiting, as we lose teachers to personal or family health problems, or to pressures of their paying jobs. Teachers need not be club members or county residents. No one has quit because of unhappiness on the job. It is challenging, exhausting and extremely rewarding. It is a chance to teach people who want to learn, choosing what you want to teach, and how, no discipline problems. It is true that our Director, Dorothy Hartsell, drops in from time to time, but only to tell us how great the program is. She has done all the applications for donated machines, and has slowly achieved a room of our own no longer used for luncheons or Music Appreciation or as a mailing room. In midsummer 2000 generous donors provided 5 new Gateway machines with Win98. The latest addition to the room is our own copier. Faculty meetings consist of a luncheon once or twice a year. Eleanor Mistler, former student, coach and teacher, is now a member of Dorothy's staff, hired to handle the extra work involved in scheduling students and teachers, and related matters.
Starting in October 2000 the Senior Computer room can now be used for evening classes. Many members who are not free in daytime have said they might teach evenings. For information about joining a class, teaching, or coaching Call the Activities office at 788 1359 ..
Classes are open to Hunterdon County residents sixty and over, or married to someone sixty or over. Classes are limited to 5 or 6 students, with a teacher and a coach, with a fine computer for each student. Class duration is an hour or an hour and a half, meeting weekly. The Basics classes run for 12 or 13 weeks, others for 1 to 6 weeks, decided by the teacher. Students pay a $15.00 Activities fee for the longer courses, or make donations for the shorter ones.
Following is a partial list of groups we have helped. If your group has a computer problem HCC might be able to help with, call Evelyn Stewart at 995 4042.
High Bridge Elementary School PTA- scheduling volunteers
Literacy Volunteers - hardware help for the newsletter computer
Hunterdon County Dept. of Human Services - help for disabled people
Glen Gardner Youth Center- training
Tewksbury Library - training
Spina Bifida - a complete brochure
NORWESCAP Food Bank - setting up spread sheets to handle orders and inventory - training
NORWESCAP Family Outreach
Youth Corps - hardware donations and training
Alexandria School
Hunterdon County Jail - classes for prisoners
Kingwood Township Web Pages
The Office on Aging -set up computer classes and provide teachers