David Smith, left, director of Literacy Volunteers of Tompkins County, a United Way agency, looks over materials recently with Ellen Bonn, a former manager at Cornell Media and Technology Services who is on the Literacy Volunteers board, at the agency's 124 W. Buffalo St. office. Charles Harrington/University Photography
"Reading to my children was one of my purest delights when they were young," said Ellen Bonn, a retired manager at Cornell's Media and Technology Services who has been volunteering with Literacy Volunteers of Tompkins County (LVTC), a United Way agency, for five years and is now the president of its board of directors. "I work for this organization because if I can help just one person enjoy that same delight, I know I will have done good in this world."
Although the average adult can easily read to his or her child, or read this article in less than five minutes, more than 27 million people in the United States would find either task exceedingly difficult. Among the millions of adults who read at, or below, a grade-school level, 3,000 of them are your friends, relatives and neighbors living right here in Tompkins County.
Since 1976, Literacy Volunteers has organized community volunteers to help residents learn how to do things such as fill out a job application, obtain a driver's license, pass job entrance exams, earn a general education degree and read to their children.
Over the past year, more than 200 adults have used the agency's services to improve their basic skills -- twice as many as the previous year. Many are immigrants or refugees from Eastern European nations or recent arrivals from Asia and Africa, who have taken advantage of LVTC's English as a Second Language program.
"Many of these people are highly literate in their native languages but have trouble becoming gainfully employed without more English skills," said David Smith, LVTC's new executive director. Smith was the director of allocations for United Way of Tompkins County for seven years before joining Literacy Volunteers in July.
Other typical LVTC clients have learning disabilities or other cognitive problems that have made it difficult for them to learn basics in the past, and now they participate in LVTC's Adult Basic Education program.
"Clients decide what they want to achieve; we don't tell them what their goals should be," Smith said.
Students work with volunteer tutors as well as computer programs available at LVTC to learn at their own pace; they also use newspapers, magazines, applications and children's books.
"My first student gave me the greatest sense of satisfaction you could imagine," said Bonn, who recently received a 1999 Graceful Giving Award from Community Development Professionals and the Ithaca Journal for making a difference in the community. "He started as a stumbling reader at a third-grade level and then made amazing strides in a year and a half."
Such clients are served by more than 70 volunteer tutors who are trained by LVTC staff at Cornell, Ithaca College or local schools. The organization's volunteers include retirees from a variety of professions, as well as professors, staff and graduate students from Cornell and Ithaca College and some undergraduate interns.
Volunteers learn how to teach clients one-on-one and in small groups. Instead of teaching grammar, LVTC tutors are trained in how to use informal conversation, interpersonal interaction and repetition to help their clients learn to read and write. They also help clients brush up on their basic math skills, when needed.
LVTC is a full affiliate of Literacy Volunteers of America -- a network of community volunteer programs that views literacy as "critical to personal freedom and the maintenance of a democratic society." In 1989, the agency joined the United Way of Tompkins County.
For more information about Literacy Volunteers of Tompkins County, call 277-6442 or stop by the office at 124 West Buffalo St.
The Cornell United Way Campaign '99 web site is now available at: http://www.sws.cornell.edu/cuw.
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