To celebrate this milestone, SeniorNet went all out for its 10th anniversary. About 200 people turned out for the March 8 party, including some of the program's founding members and San Jose Councilman Ken Yeager.

SeniorNet is a nonprofit group that provides computer education and access to people 50 and older. Since its inception, the program's learning center has provided 602 classes to more than 7,500 students. This feat required 66,800 volunteer hours in instructing, coaching and administration. And the overwhelming popularity of classes in the Willows Senior Center SeniorNet program spawned two more learning centers, one at Almaden Community Center and the other at the Cypress Senior Center in West San Jose.

SeniorNet members are proud of their accomplishments, helping adults 50 and older to learn how to use the Internet, email, word processing, Adobe Photoshop and digital photography.

"This is one of the few programs where you don't have to go out and encourage people to participate," volunteer instructor Bill Sousa says. "We have over 90 volunteers."

Sousa, 73, has been with the program since it began. He has taught 27 classes and says the program works well due to the volunteer coaches. Coaches are SeniorNet members who have participated in SeniorNet as students and liked it so much, they decided to help new students become proficient also. In each computer class, instructors strive for a four-to-one ratio—four students for every coach—maximizing the learning process.

Mike Morales came to the program three years ago and reiterates how important the coaches are to the program's success. While feasting on cake to celebrate the anniversary, he praised SeniorNet and the impact it has had on his life.

"This has been a big step forward for me," he says. "They teach at a good pace for seniors here. I'd be a total misfit anywhere else."

Morales, 72, says he'd owned a computer for years before joining SeniorNet, but couldn't get beyond basic computer skills without the help of the center's computer courses.

"The computer for me has become a tool," he says. "It is a way for me to manage information. It's my window to the world."

Fellow SeniorNet member Lorraine Harrison says she is probably the only one who still doesn't own a computer. She couldn't stop smiling at the celebration, talking to other computer-literate adults who now share this common bond.

"I started taking classes here and now I'm a coach," 67-year-old Harrison says. "I wanted to give back to the program after it had given so much to me."

She's enjoyed learning Windows XP, graphics programs and word processing.

Longtime SeniorNet instructor Phil Carnahan, 71, likes to hear success stories, like those of Harrison and Morales, because it proves that more people are pushing their anxieties aside to learn computer skills.

Looking back, Carnahan remembers when the center had only six computers but still received nearly 2,000 calls during its first week. Today the senior center boasts 20 computers. Carnahan has taught 18 classes since then and is proud that the Willow Glen SeniorNet branch was part of the "first wave" of learning centers in the Bay Area.

"We have come a long way and now teach more than a dozen courses," he says. "It has been very rewarding and encouraging."

For more information about Willows Senior Center and SeniorNet, call 408.448.6400. or visit www.snlcsj.org. The Willows Senior Center is located at 2175 Lincoln Ave.