Volunteer Tutors
Help Learners
Reach Their
Literacy Goals
Stories from Our Volunteers
A country and western chanteuse
Lori Crowe has been a dedicated volunteer for years and has worked with many types of learners. She is always willing to promote TLC and our efforts! Read more about Lori Crowe as an example of the diverse talents of TLC's volunteers. Lori has graced us with her beautiful voice as well as her tutoring skills and we want to express how much we truly appreciate her!
Fulfill Love of Language
The voice of my father haunted me as I stood outside the Literacy Center, "To whom much has been given of him much shall be required." He, of course, was quoting Jesus' charge to his disciples in the Gospel of Luke. With my love of the English language, his voice was enough for me to open the door to find out about being a tutor, and what a blessing it has become for me.
First off, teaching people who want to learn is rewarding enough. When I taught rhetoric at a California State University, it wasn't always so, rhetoric being a requirement. But at the Literacy Center people come with a compelling desire to learn English. There is no getting someone's attention. It's already there.
And then there are the people, as the Prayer Book says, "all sort and conditions." To name a few: a young woman from Tanzania, a Chinese teacher from Ulan Bator, a bus boy, a middle-aged Hispanic mother who realized her dream of becoming a citizen, a brilliant young woman from Vietnam who wants to become a pharmacist, and a high school dropout. By the way, the word for weeds in Swahili is "magugu."
My father read from Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Longfellow, the Psalms, Blake, and Tennyson at the dinner table, which is perhaps one of the reasons I love my mother tongue. Whatever the reasons one might have for loving the language, there is no better place to fulfill that love than at the Literacy Center.
Dana Prom Smith, Flagstaff
Carlos*, a story by tutor Gene Munger
As my biweekly session ended with Carlos, my learner in the Literacy Volunteers of Coconino County Program, he quietly handed me a note he had written. Tears came to my eyes as I read silently:
Dear Gene,
I want say thank you for your help and your patience with me.
God blesses you.
Sincerely,
Carlos
*Name changed to protect confidentiality
