[ Original Article: http://raceonline2012.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/silver-surfers-take-gold-at-st-lukes-community-center/ ]
Race Online 2012’s very own programme manager Judith Graham pulled together an event in her neighbourhood, at St Luke’s Community Centre in central London.
People streamed in, long before the advertised start, all of them with different reasons to give it a go. Ivy summed up the mood though, saying:
‘The internet – it’s amazing! You can go anywhere in the world!’
Cathy, who just happened to be walking past, saw the balloons and posters and so had decided to give the web a whirl on the spot, had quite specific ideas of where she wanted to go: egged on by her holiday Down Under, she scrolled through snaps of Sydney, and checked out the latest news and weather on the BBC.
Judith helped Al dig out some online guitar lessons, and had a laugh about people from the past you might find again on Facebook. Ophelia looked up local dance classes printed out their timetables and contact details. Gerardo, who was already a dab-hand at emailing and browsing, went online to try out online shopping and physiotherapy site. Rashida was curious about flights to Dhaka, learning more written English and really taking this internet thing further. The flyer she’d got through her letterbox had given her just the impetus she needed to come and try it out. ‘I’m going to go on a course and practise on my daughter’s computer from now on,’ she said. Margaret was looking for a job, so we searched online, found one, and downloaded the application form for her.
Jason, business development manager at St Luke’s, which is a UK Online Centre, said:
‘This is the first step in a process for people. The centre is now running weekly drop-in sessions so that they can take it further, one step at a time’.
Judith was inspired by her day as a volunteer computer tutor: ‘I suddenly really grasped what it’s like for people to try this out, by sitting right there with them. I learned a lot from it, and it was really satisfying. I’ll definitely be doing this again.’ Watch video of the day below.