Eva Sachar received her Girl Scout Gold Award for “Modernizing Seniors,” her project focusing on teaching senior citizens how to use a computer to play games, read the news, create an E-mail account, and more. A Plainsboro resident, she is a junior at High School North. A Girl Scout for three years, she is in troop 71607 and Louisa Ho is her leader.
“I’m a vintage enthusiast and am really interested in learning about the culture from the ’60s to the ’90s,” says Sachar. Her interest led her to volunteer at Merwick Care and Rehabilitation Center. “I began talking to many of the seniors for an hour at a time and I realized how unfamiliar they are with nearly all technology other than the TV and the phone.”
Sachar was surprised because “we were taught how to use the computer in third grade and nowadays it isn’t uncommon to see toddlers playing on iPads.” She already knew that she wanted her Gold project to be based on educating others and realized she could teach others how to be more computer literate.
“By giving seniors access to computers, we allow them to participate in the modern age while giving them a way to communicate with family, receive therapy, and learn something new,” says Sachar. “It is a pleasure to see seniors gaining the ability to keep in touch with their old friends and distant family through Google searches and Facebook.”
Her project advisor was Lucinda Cochrane and her project mentor was Susan Grollman, the assistant director of recreation at Merwick. “She was great about advertising about the computer program within the facility and helping me find seniors who were interested in learning how to use the computer,” says Sachar.
At North Sachar is on the varsity girls’ tennis team and a section editor for the yearbook. Last summer she developed a summer camp at the Plainsboro Recreation Department to teach kids how to cook healthy snacks and meals. She also sings and tutors at the Plainsboro Library.
“It’s extremely rewarding to see seniors’ enthusiasm to use the computer and hopefully this project will expand to other senior centers,” says Sachar. “I’m really glad I chose this project because it has been very satisfying to give back to the community in this manner and to be able to witness its impact on my target audience.”
