Speaker In Waverley August 25

Hi everyone,

I was asked by the members of the Heritage Society to post the info for a speaker they have coming to Waverley next week. If you or anyone you know is interested in geology Dr. Michael Parsons is coming to talk about gold mining (gold mining is how Waverley got started as a Village). He's speaking about the environmental legacy historical gold mining has and continues to have on Nova Scotia. The event is happening at 7:00 pm Wednesday, August 25 in the Waverley Legion (
2234 Rocky Lake Drive, Waverley, NS) and if you want any more info feel free to email me or post a comment on the post :)

- sarah

Connecting the CAP Site to the Community

In Waverley the CAP Site that I work in shares a building with the Waverley Heritage Museum. As a result I have gotten to know many of the Heritage Society members and have learned more about the history of the community while being able to share my computer skills with them.

Over the course of the summer the society hosts two Teas. This is an opportunity to raise money and socialize for its members and a chance for me to publicize the CAP Site.

In July I enjoyed helping with the Tea and getting to know some of the people in the community. Next Friday they will have their second Tea and I will once again volunteer my services. This week I helped them with their advertising in the community by making this flyer and posting it in the community.

Blog Challenge 4

BBQ of the century

So my table went see through but at one point it looked like wood I swear! Also there are cut up tomatoes, a hamburger, pop cans, and a hotdog on the table if you can't tell.....

1861 meets 2010

Adjacent to the Waverley C@P site is an old church that has been turned into a local museum. This building has been in the community since the 1800’s and is an important symbol of the Village’s rich history. At this point the museum runs off of the time and efforts of local volunteers and has been using mostly traditional ways of receiving funding. These methods (like donations, yard sales etc) worked in the past but the expenses have been going up and they decided it was time to try something new.

This year they decided to try hosting a yard sale once again by taking in donations and having a sale at the museum. In efforts to raise more money for the museum, myself and the museum volunteers decided to sell the more valuable items online via. Kijiji. I consider this my success story of the week because of the mix of new technology and history. It was nice to see the volunteers who are seniors will little computer experience willing to try something new in effort to preserve history.

Fundimentals are the building blocks of fun

This week has taught me how similar learning how to use a computer and learning how to read is. In both situations you start off slow, learning little things like what a letter is or how to turn a computer on. You slowly learn more and more until you can read an entire sentence or type up an email. The more you use these new skills the better you get even if you don't really notice your improvement.

These days almost every young person has used a computer and is fairly advanced in their level of computer literacy. Without even thinking about it we use hot-keys, scroll down pages, and google any thing we need to know about. Most of us can enroll in classes, pay our bills, book plane tickets and buy our text books in under ten minutes. This all seems pretty easy when you've been on a computer since your age was in the single digits but to someone who has just started using a computer while in their 60's it all seems down right scary.

What I consider to be my biggest success this week is helping a new computer user get more comfortable on the internet by showing her little things that make the experience more effective and efficient. I never realized the time a few clicks of the tab, control, and enter key really saves you and how much more someone can get done when they make the effort to come out and further their learning.

Email, Google and Motorcycles?

When I started this job I would never have guessed that the first thing that I helped someone do on a computer was buy a motorcycle online. In a town where the majority of CAP users are seniors I was expecting questions about emailing or Microsoft office and was pleasantly surprised when the first person that walked in my door wanted to know how to use Kijiji. Having used Kijiji in the past I knew how to maneuver the site and while showing my visitor how to use the search options to narrow down his findings I asked what it was he was looking for. I figured he must be interested in purchasing some new furniture or maybe just wanted to see what the site was all about but was clearly mistaken since it turned out he wanted to buy a new Harley Davidson to ride around on during the summer.

I had other people in during the week but this particular visitor stood out from the rest. It was nice to help someone learn how to use the website but what made it memorable (aside from the fact that he was buying a motorcycle) was the fact that this was just some website my visitor had heard about in passing (he didn't really know the name at first just that it was "like eBay but different") and decided he wanted to learn more about it.

The fact that people can drop by and ask questions about absolutely anything to do with computers is really what makes the CAP program so great. Its nice that people who have little or no previous technological experience have somewhere close to learn more about whatever might interest them. I know my visitor was happy to learn more and I hope that I can help many more people accomplish their computer goals over the summer.

Sarah Haworth, Waverley C@P Sites

Hi everyone!! I have never done any sort of blogging before but I will do my best this summer. My name is Sarah Haworth and I am working at the three Waverley CAP sites this summer. I'm excited to be working close to home and in the community where I grew up.

I'm a business student going into my third year at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario and am back at home for the summer. I have attended classes at both WLU and the University of Waterloo and really enjoy the city of Waterloo but am happy to be home. The program I'm in is Honours Business Administrations and my plan is either to go into investment banking and get my CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) or head to law school after I have completed my undergrad. Its hard to believe I'm already half way done school and will have to decide what I really want to do soon.

Other then school I have always enjoyed being involved with sports. Growing up I ran cross country and played hockey, ringette, and soccer. I'm no longer on any team sports but enjoy playing squash and running. I am also one of the few senior female soccer referees in the province (this is my sixth season!) so I still spend most evenings on the field.

I'm hoping the mix of my marketing and computer knowledge will help me bring in and help out lots of people this summer. Waverley is not a very big place but there are always people that need more assistance when it comes to effective and efficient computer usage. My goal is to help people of all experience levels feel comfortable on a computer.