Oct 21, 2014:

Portlaoise ARA Member wins Silver Surfer Award

Trudy Nealon (70) from Laois has been named as the overall winner of 2014 Google Silver Surfer Awards with Age Action. Trudy uses technology on a daily basis for everything, as treasurer of the Portlaoise Active Retirement Association, she is also responsible for the administration of the club, managing its finances and membership database.

In addition to doing all her banking, shopping, travel arrangements and correspondence online, Trudy also uses her expertise creatively. For her club she puts together presentations of proposed holidays for the local group to choose from and she even produces CD rom collections of holiday photos for members who take part in the group tours. This year the club celebrated its 10 year anniversary and to commemorate the occasion Trudy produced a DVD of the club's history for all the members, complete with titles, credits and a soundtrack.

Minister for Communications, Energy and the Environment, Alex White  presented Trudy with her award and the prize of a brand new Google Chromebook laptop during a ceremony held in The Foundry building at Google headquarters in Dublin today.

Speaking at the awards ceremony he said:"The stories from this year's silver surfers are fantastic and inspiring. They show the wide range of opportunities we can access online. They make very clear that no matter what your age, you are never too old to learn. One nominee got her Ph.D. at the age of 72, another wrote his memoirs at the age of 99.   For some, the skills they have learned and the confidence they have built - with the help of community and voluntary organisations and with support from my Department under the BenefIT Programme - have helped them lift themselves out of very difficult life situations.  What is really great, and I want to stress this, is these opportunities can be available to everyone." 

Stuart McLaughlin, Head of GooglersGive EMEA said: "The entries this year were truly amazing, with such a high quality amongst all of the nominations. The stories of both the winners and their fellow nominees were so varied, showing the diverse reasons and ways of how and why people are getting online. From connecting with family, to pursuing hobbies, to running local associations like Trudy, these Silver Surfers prove that it's never too late to learn!"

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