With more and more Baby Boomers using the Internet, Farmville native Celia Carter Banks is preparing to launch a Kickstarter campaign to introduce and fund a new online business designed to provide seniors with a convenient way to create a legacy-type document based on their own lives.

Banks, an artist and writer and a Baby Boomer herself, notes that the Pew Research Center study “Americans’ Internet Access, 2000-2015,” published in June, has found that almost six in 10 senior Americans are now using the Internet.

“I have such a heart for my generation, and I believe technology can be used to enrich the lives of seniors,” Banks said.

For over 10 years she has found both enjoyment and meaning in creating her own form of tangible legacy through writing and illustrating children’s books — four titles so far, with a fifth on the way. 

“I want to give others of this generation, and hopefully generations to come, the opportunity to share their unique stories through authorship in the ways they want to do it.”

She believes her new business venture, called Primrose Place™, “will make it easier than ever for the fastest-growing demographic of Internet-users to build a legacy that their families and friends can enjoy indefinitely.”

Banks is developing Primrose Place as an Internet platform designed to provide seniors with an opportunity to create a high-quality, hard-bound book to leave as a legacy — combining their personal stories, photos, thoughts and personal values with artwork (if they wish) from Banks’ extensive art portfolio.

The legacy books, Banks says, are intended for a person’s children, grandchildren, extended family members, godchildren and friends, and are envisioned as a lasting expression of the individual’s experiences and what they consider important in life.

Various options would be available to persons wishing to create a legacy book.

To fund the project, she said, she decided to use the crowdfunding site Kickstarter because it offers a way to involve a community of people who share her vision for using technology to create a significant online experience uniquely for other seniors.

“Kickstarter is so exciting,” she said, “because it gives others who see value in this an opportunity to build the project with me.”

The Kickstarter campaign will be formally launched in conjunction with Cyber Monday on Nov. 30. Banks hopes the Internet traffic surrounding the Thanksgiving shopping holidays, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday, will make for a successful campaign launch. 

The campaign will continue for 30 days after the launch. The funds, Banks said, will be used to develop, to test, and to implement the online platform. 

Kickstarter regulations prohibit financial remuneration to those who choose to invest in projects, but she plans to express appreciation to investors with a variety of gifts created by her, each with an artistic touch.

“I hope others will find that the concept of Primrose Place™ is something of which they want to be a part, “Banks said. “Personally, I am very excited about what I believe it can make possible for individuals and families.”

She added, “Although Primrose Place™ will be a business and I hope that it will make a profit, it is more important to me that it will be a means of serving thousands of people worldwide in leaving a lasting legacy of their life stories, their special memories and their values in a way that will reflect that their life was a life that mattered.”

Banks encouraged those who have an interest in the project to log on to the Primrose Place mailing list at www.celiabanks.com so they can be kept informed about the development of the Internet platform and also “so we can begin engaging you in related online conversations.”

About Celia Carter Banks

Celia Carter Banks, daughter of Willie and Gray Carter (founders of Carter’s Flower Shop) was born and reared in Farmville. Banks is a former vice president of design for the International China Company and has been a designer for dolls, doll houses, toys, cosmetics and gift products for such companies as Avon Products, Inc., Mattel Inc. and Hasbro. She has taken her corporate experience and coupled it with her love of children and literature to create a unique series of interactive, illustrated children’s books. Currently, Banks is using her invaluable experience as an author, artist and businesswoman to encourage and develop the same vision for other seniors interested in leaving a legacy through authorship. Celia Banks is currently a resident of Lexington, Ky.