Noah Works (left) and David Blackburn

By Brian Larsen of The Cook County News Herald - August 10, 2018.

The message can’t be more transparent, “We require Boreal e-mail customers to have your account migrated to a new server. You will no longer receive an email to your Boreal account after September 1 if you fail to contact us. Call today to learn more.”

While the message may seem stern, that’s not the point of it. Boreal is moving all 1,700 email accounts to a more secure server. Its current equipment is old, and the staff at Boreal feels it’s better to take action now than to wait until there is a catastrophic accident that would harm its customers.

And the cost to make the switch? There is none. But there are some definite advantages to the customer.

“Your email will be faster to send and, you will receive a lot less spam, said David Blackburn. 

Making the transition as painless and seamless as possible for residential customers are two hardworking student interns, David Blackburn and Noah Works. Each is a 2018 Cook County High School graduate who will pursue degrees in the field of computing in college.

If David or Noah can’t help you over the phone and you can’t take your computer to the Boreal office located in the basement of the Higher Education office, they will come to your house.

“I have driven to Hovland and to Tofte to help people,” said Blackburn.

Each student completes 10 to 11 transitions per day, and they are on board to work seven days a week if needed.

Boreal Community media office administrator Shawn Buckroyd does the planning and sets up the accounts to be switched over.

Boreal’s server administrator Tom Knutson works with businesses to convert their e-mail addresses. If the kids need some help, he’s there to answer their questions, but from the looks of things, they don’t need much help.

Buckroyd marveled at how much help Blackburn and Works have been to the project.

“Noah created a bot that has helped us to notify people. It’s been an enormous help. We simply wouldn’t have the staff to take this project on without their assistance,” she adds.

During the interview, Blackburn received a call from a computer savvy lady, and he talked her through the steps to change the settings on her computer and settings on her personal devices so she could receive and send e-mails. It didn’t sound confusing or hard, and Blackburn was very patient in his instruction.

A $25,000 grant from the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation has never come in handier, said Buckroyd.

“Without that money, we couldn’t have hired our invaluable student interns, David Blackburn and Noah Works.”