Newport Beach Library - Literacy Day Celebrated

Literacy Day Celebrated in Newport Beach Library
Corona Del Mar Today: 9.12.2013

Life in Newport Beach without the skills to communicate in English left one woman feeling like a hamster running on a wheel in a cage. Another woman described endless days surfing the Internet, too uncomfortable to step foot outside her home. Another said she spent her entire childhood and part of her adult life finding ways to fool her family, teachers and friends into thinking she could read and tell time.

The women — all “learners” with the Newport/Mesa ProLiteracy organization — spoke today in the Central Library Friends Room as part of a celebration of International Literacy Day. A standing-room only crowd of about 150 people shared foods from around the world as well as literacy accomplishments.


Tutor Katie Northup  &

 2013 Hoffman Award

recipient, Marnalee Lopez

“Literacy is a hard word when you can’t read,” said Marnalee Lopez, who described trying to read a flier about literacy services 20 years ago. She studied for awhile, she said, then returned to the ProLiteracy program in Newport Beach when her triplets were in fourth grade.

“I realized they were becoming smarter than I was,” she said. “And that wasn’t going to happen.”

Lopez received the Rochelle Hoffman Memorial Award, given each year to a standout learner in the Literacy Services program. The award is named for a Corona del Mar woman who volunteered as a tutor before her death in 2004.  READ MORE !