Inquiring minds want to know, at least Maurice Yepsen did, when he stood up from his regular lunch table at the Henry County Senior Center and asked how he could read The Kewanee Voice.
His inquiry led one of the board members of The Kewanee Voice to put in a call to Kewanee School District Supt. Dr. Christopher Sullens to ask if the district had any extra computers that they could donate to the cause.
Within a week, Dr. Sullens, along with IT Director Mike Perva, delivered six Chromebooks to the senior center. Perva even took some extra time to help set them up and connect them to the internet. Two of the computers will now be located in the front lobby of the building and can be used by seniors to keep up with the latest news.
The other four donated computers will be used by the student journalists who join The Kewanee Voice Student Journalism Program. The new program was recently announced and is funded by the Harry Anderson Memorial Trust Fund.
Maurice Yepsen, who visits the senior center every day for lunch and on Tuesday nights for dinner, was the first senior to use the computers to view the website. Perva said these extra computers were purchased prior to Covid, and the district was going to do away with them. Perva said older computers reach their end of life and need to be replaced, but new guidelines suggest that they actually function perfectly fine past their end-of-life date.
The center’s news project is not yet complete. The Kewanee Voice is still working on a donation for a small tv. The screen on the Chromebooks is smaller, but could be hooked up to a tv to make viewing the news site easier.
The computer nook is open to all seniors, especially those without computer access at home, for viewing The Kewanee Voice.
