Watermark at the Pearl’s tech-helping teens
Lincoln High School students help retirees with technology troubles
By William Morton
On a sunny Saturday afternoon, four Lincoln High School students and Bruce Thesenga, a resident of the Watermark retirement community at the Pearl, sit around a long marble table. Thesenga, comfortably planted in his wheelchair, needed help setting up an application on his computer.
For the past two years, a Lincoln High School club has been volunteering to help residents of four retirement homes: Watermark at the Pearl, Calaroga Terrace, Northwest Place and The Canopy.
The club, aptly named the Lincoln Support and Services club, was cofounded by Noah von dem Bruch, a student who became inspired after helping some of his older family members with what many may consider simple technology-related tasks.
Cindy Wu, a member of the club since its start, explained her progression.
“At first,” Wu begins, “ I wasn’t really sure about whether I was able to help…and didn’t know if I could actually solve their problems.”
But after attending a session, she realized that many of the problems had simple solutions. Some of the most common problems, according to the club members, involve navigating messages, calling, printing and deleting spam.
Thesenga quickly became an ambassador for the program, spreading the word to his friends at the Watermark. It struck him that students were willing to give up some of their limited free time to volunteer over the weekends.
After his arrival, Thesenga’s first request for assistance took no more than a couple of minutes to resolve. Throughout the session, a handful of Watermark residents flowed in and out: Jean Montgomery, Doug Allderdice and Hunter Kennedy.
Montgomery needed access to one of her accounts, as well as aid in cleaning out apps and widgets. Getting rid of the things that pop up and make her go crazy, she explained.
Allderdice brought in his phone with the goal of learning how to navigate its settings. After around half an hour, he left with one thought: “I have a lot of work to do.”
Finally, Kennedy worked on consolidating his passwords for a significant chunk of the two-hour session. He had discovered his total of 190 passwords and set his sights on reducing that to around 20. By the end of the event, he still had he also had plenty of work to finish on this own.
Their session finished after two-plus hours, with all parties looking forward to another encounter in two weeks.
Bless these kids for helping the retired people. We need more like them.