When Bobby Steinbach’s grandfather died in 2006, his grandmother felt isolated and alone. She had some rudimentary knowledge of computers, able to play bridge on the home PC that her husband had bought; he set up the connection with the on-line bridge players for her. But, once he was gone she lost the connection frequently and needed help. She also wished to do more on the computer, such as email with friends and family, shop and read. Bobby helped her and the idea for Digital Grandparents was born.

When Bobby started Northeastern University in 2008 as a computer science major, he received the Reggie Lewis Scholarship, a full-tuition scholarship that came with a community service component through Northeastern’s CEP program. With the help of attorney and co-founding Board Member Pamela Katz, he incorporated and obtained non-profit charity (501(c)(3)) status for Digital Grandparents. He and Cedric McDougal worked with co-founding director Sara De Ritter, who was then Associate Director of Service & Community Partnerships at Northeastern University, to organize student volunteers from CEP. Since then, we have expanded our area of operations to New York State’s Capital Region and New York City.