Weekly helping hands at CALE

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Each week, a group of about five Hewlett High School students visit the Center for Adult Life Enrichment on the school’s campus to volunteer their time and skills to help the seniors. 

“They learn a lot,” Georgiana Wolfson, the Center for Adult Life Enrichment (CALE) executive director, said, of the volunteers’ experience. She added that the students are giving back to the community. 

Students from all grades visit the center every school year to help members with computer training and work on producing the newsletter, The Centerpiece, the bi-monthly calendar and promotional items such as brochures about CALE’s activities, programs and trips. 

Its mission is to enhance the dignity of older adults of diverse backgrounds with programs that physically and intellectually continue to develop their quality of life.

Most members are Woodmere and Hewlett residents, but the center serves all of the Five Towns and the surrounding communities, including North Woodmere, Atlantic Beach, Valley Stream, East Rockaway, Lynbrook and Far Rockaway.

Hewlett High juniors Rom Raviv and Ben Rapp, both 16 and from Woodmere, spend about an hour every Wednesday at the center between 3 and 4 p.m. They are work on the bi-monthly calendar of events using Google Docs, a free program that allows users to access documents from anywhere, and create templates for future projects. 

Raviv, in his first year volunteering at CALE, said, “I feel like I’m making a difference,” adding that he likes teaching the members new technology. 

“I use it for school a lot,” Rapp said, of his expertise in Google Docs. Also in his first year volunteering at CALE, he said he enjoys “implementing new technologies,” help the center’s operations run smoothly.

“They’re the future of the world,” Don Newman, a member that coordinates CALE’s computer training, said. Newman recently installed a new audiovisual system at the center.