We asked our volunteers to share some of their favorite stories from their time as a Volunteer at Do Space. Trish Lanphier is one of our regular Cyber Senior Volunteers who helps to provide regular peer-to-peer advise to the community. Trish is retired, but formerly worked as the Senior Director of Technology at Douglas County. This is her account of her volunteer experience.
I watched as another volunteer helped a woman, a rather unhappy woman with her iPad, a Christmas present from her son. The woman heavily set the iPad down on the table, sighed and said “ I didn’t ask for this, my son wanted me to have it. I don’t know how it works. I don’t really want to know, but he wants me to know, so here I am.”
The volunteer patiently worked with the woman. Showing her how to turn it on; set up her email, taught her how to get to her email, how to write and send an email to her son, how to turn the iPad off. Near noon, the woman stood up to leave – a big smile on her face, a big thank you to our volunteer. The woman was 89 years old, but you are never too old to learn.
I helped a man with navigating Windows 10. We went through quite a few questions he had. When we were done, he took my hand, saying warmly “Thank you so very much.”
It is amazingly gratifying to help people navigate the tech world. A world they think is beyond their understanding, a world that only the young know. Mostly, I think, they are surprised at how easy it really is.