‘Cyber-Seniors’ movie will kick off Polk County effort

STROMSBURG, Neb. — Polk County Senior Services will be kicking off its new program, the Cyber-Senior project, by showing the documentary “Cyber-Seniors — Connecting Generations” on Tuesday at the Stromsburg Civic Center.

The film chronicles the journey of a group of senior citizens who learn to navigate their way through the digital world with the help of their teenage mentors.

The Cyber-Seniors program was started by two Canadian sisters, Macaulee, 16, and Kascha Cassaday, 18.

After witnessing how learning to use the Internet transformed the lives of their grandparents, they developed a training manual and brought a group of friends to a local retirement home to teach seniors how to use the Internet.

The documentary is directed by their older sister, Saffron Cassaday.

Jan Noyd, director of Polk County Senior Services, said she had been thinking about ways to connect middle and high school kids with local senior citizens as well as get seniors more familiar with the digital world.

“Living in a rural area, a lot of our children move to a bigger city or another state after they graduate,” Noyd said. “I think it will bring them closer to their families and give them a chance to stay in touch more often.”

The documentary will be shown at 4 p.m. Senior citizens and high school students are encouraged to attend. Tickets will be sold at the door.

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