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FBLA helps seniors with cookbook and technology
By Scott Steinberg
Lilly Zdenek doesn't need a recipe to make ceviche. Goodness knows she has made it enough.
Thanks to an enterprising group of Future Business Leaders of America members at Homestead High School, Zdenek and other senior residents at Cypress Gardens and Bracher Senior Apartments in Cupertino have put their timeless culinary masteries down on paper and in the process obtained basic computer knowledge, becoming closer to the tech culture that surrounds them if not affects them.
Through a community service project set up by FBLA members called E=mc2 or Elderly Mastering Computer Concepts, seniors learned how to use a word processing program. The months of lessons culminated in a "best of" cookbook, A Melting Pot: Bridging generations and Cultures.
Club members sold copies of the cookbook at the Sunnyvale Farmer's Market on March 9 and celebrated the printing with a potluck at the senior homes, where members prepared some of the recipes for the residents.
And while the cookbook contains some gems (Aparna Goel's aaloo tikki and Zara Khan's rice pudding) and some questionable fare (chicken fingers, and oyster crackers--just add crackers), the project was less about the food and more about giving the seniors a crack at something new.
According to the club's mission statement, technology can alienate the elderly, and the club hoped to aid in the elderly's quest to overcome that barrier.
"It was a pretty rewarding experience, teaching people something they've never encountered before," project president and Homestead senior Nami Kasuya said. "They said they wouldn't be able to learn anything."
Kasuya said she had the idea for the project after an official at the Santa Clara Housing Authority said there was a computer at the senior residences but no one seemed to be using it.
It may seem surprising, Gerald Wong said, seeing the Future Business Leaders engaged in volunteer activities.
"There are many other aspects to the club than just business," said Wong, also a senior at Homestead. "There are socials and lots of community service."
He said the club has participated in Heartwalk, helped out with KTR fundraising and sandbagged for the Palo Alto Fire Department and Water District.
He credits FBLA advisor Byron Lee with doing "a great job of motivating people in the club."
After covering the cost of the $5 cookbooks, proceeds will go toward updating the computer equipment at Cypress Gardens and Bracher. The group will write a report about the service project and present it at the state FBLA competition in Irvine on April 25.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
