Santa Paula Blanchard Library - International Literacy Day September 8

International Literacy Day September 8
Santa Paula News: 9.5.07

If you can read this, CELEBRATE International Literacy Day, September 8, 2007.

Since 1985, Santa Paula’s Blanchard Library FLAIR literacy program has been providing one-to-one volunteer tutors to help adults with reading, writing and math. Hundreds of adults have achieved success in reaching their literacy goals, ranging from being able to read a children’s book to earning a college degree. Meet a few of them:

“Before I came to FLAIR I couldn’t understand English. Now I speak, read and write it.” – Maria

“I was nervous at first but I took the ESL classes and then got a tutor. I’m learning grammar and cursive penmanship. I’m learning more and more.” – Francisco

“I read to my daughter.” – Luis

“FLAIR has been one of the most important things that has come into our lives. My husband and I have experienced good job opportunities… my daughter and older son have now graduated college.” – Martha

“I appreciate my tutor. She helps me. I want to work in a hospital convalescent home. It’s a good program. I love my library.” – Rosa

“I want a better life for my kids.” – Victor

To help celebrate these (and many other) goals and accomplishments, you can:

• Publicize our literacy program with posters and flyers

• Become a volunteer tutor

• Make a donation, which will receive a match from the California State Library - $6 will bring us $2, $9 will bring us $3, $12 will bring us $4, etc.

Call FLAIR at 525-2384. Happy reading!

Lompoc Library - Celebrate Literacy Day by becoming a volunteer

Celebrate Literacy Day by becoming a volunteerLompoc Record: 9.04.07 - by Linda Warren

“International Literacy Day” is observed annually on Sept. 8 - this Saturday - to focus attention on worldwide literacy needs. More than 780 million of the world's adults, (nearly two-thirds women) don't know how to read or write. Between 94 and 115 million children lack access to education. Even in one of the richest countries in the world, illiteracy is a very sad fact.

I recently became a tutor, after I retired from a long career, and have been richly blessed by my student. I was trained in a few short evenings and was surprised that I needed no formal education in teaching to become a tutor. I had a friend years before, whose mother had taught others to read in the evening at the library. I thought to myself that I could also become a volunteer someday, once I retired and had more time. I discovered that it only takes a couple of hours a week to be a tutor, meeting twice a week.

My first student is a woman originally from another country, who only completed eighth grade. She is very eager to learn and is an excellent student. She signed up for many reasons, one of which is to be able to communicate with others and advance at her job. We have become friends and enjoy the time that we spend together. Not only do I have an opportunity to teach her to improve her reading skills, but I have also gained a friend.

To address the problem of illiteracy in our community, the Lompoc Public Library established an Adult Reading Program in 1998. In 18 years, the program has assisted more than 1,200 adults with improved reading and writing skills. The program is partly funded by the state library and the City of Lompoc, but contributions from community organizations and individuals assure the program's services will continue.

To become a volunteer tutor or make a tax-free donation, simply call 735-READ or stop by the library during regular hours and check with someone at the desk for more information. The next tutor training workshop starts Sept. 19 in the evening. This is a wonderful opportunity that anyone can do who has the desire to help someone read. It's changed my life and I know that it will change yours as well. Be a tutor and become a friend to someone today. Give the gift of reading today.

Linda Warren is literacy tutor for the Lompoc Public Library.

Orange Co Library - READ/Orange County - National Literacy Month

National Literacy Month

katydiddys is offering Literary Cupcake Notecards!

5% of profits (and FREE shipping) will be donated to the Friends of READ Orange County, an organization that supports the adult literacy program of the Orange County Public Library.

Click here to order.

Newport Beach Library - Library to celebrate International Literacy Day

Library to celebrate International Literacy DayDaily Pilot: Aug 27, 2007: by Joseph Serna

Newport Beach Public Library Literacy Services will be celebrating International Literacy Day on Thursday, Sept. 6.

The day’s program will focus on the importance of literacy outreach in the community and will recognize the contributions of the many volunteers and tutors that work in the local literacy program, as well as the learners who work hard to acquire new skills.

This year’s theme, “Unlock the Potential,” is fitting because the program will honor Rochelle Hoffman award recipient Donnie Madril, a truck driver who needed help with spelling and reading in order to complete the forms and reports necessary for work.

Two local finalists in the California Library Literacy Services “Writer to Writer” challenge will also be recognized.

The program will be from 10 a.m. to noon in the Friends Meeting Room at the Central Library, 1000 Avocado Ave. in Newport Beach.

Lompoc Library - Literacy: Where dreams begin

Literacy: Where dreams begin
Lompoc Record: Sep 8, 2006 by John McReynolds

Ian Vorster/Staff Yolanda Calderon and Dick Clark relax for a few moments Tuesday at the table in the Lompoc Library at which Calderon learned to speak, read and write English. The many hours the two have spent together have resulted in Calderon being able to open her own childcare business.

Today is International Literacy Day, but no pictures of barefoot, poverty-stricken children are necessary.

Visualize instead a young mother at the Lompoc Public Library with a book in one hand and a bottle in the other. Less than five years ago, Yolanda Calderon was that mother.

She and tutor Dick Clark are the superstars of the library's Adult Reading Program.

Since Calderon began the program, she has become a U.S. citizen, passed CPR and first-aid classes, has started her own child-care business, and has begun classes at Allan Hancock College to further her dream of becoming a teacher.

“When I came (from Mexico) I didn't know how to ask for paper or plastic,” Calderon said. “I feel very proud of helping my kids. All my kids' lessons are in English. I understand them. When I have a parent conference they don't have to translate. I don't need help any more. I can do it.”

Clark, a 24-year Air Force veteran, holds three masters' degrees, yet he and Calderon are remarkably similar.

They are both self-starters who began back in the pack.

Clark, 70, is short and trim and prodigiously energetic. He and his wife, Doris, play tennis and ride bikes, on occasion for three hours at a stretch.

A San Gabriel Valley native, he enlisted in the Air Force after a brief and less-than-successful high school experience. Through the service he earned a bachelor's in business from Colorado, then earned those advanced degrees - in electrical engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio, in systems management from USC, and in business from Golden Gate University at Vandenberg. After active duty he spent 18 years working for Vandenberg contractors as a computer programmer. He taught mathematics at night for Hancock College, but he retired from it all in 1995.

“When I retired I retired from the job, not from life,” Clark said in his characteristically clipped, anything-is-possible-let's-get-on-with-it fashion.

After shopping around for fulfilling volunteer programs, he read an advertisement for the library's reading program in early 1997. It was a perfect fit. “I didn't want to go back to teaching. This is one-on-one and I don't have to test.”

Plus it took place at the library, one of Clark's favorite places.

“I have an affinity for libraries and I wanted to help,” he said with unassailable logic. In addition to the reading program, Clark volunteers to check in books once a week and is now in the third year of a three-year term as president of the library board.

Eight years ago, Yolanda Calderon appeared and her needs meshed seamlessly with yet another of Clark's avocations, teaching himself Spanish. He watches telenovelas and reads in Spanish daily.

Improved Spanish, which he only uses in tutoring as a last resort, is just one of Clark's paybacks for his work. “It puts some structure back in my life,” he said. “I have to get cleaned up. I have to shave. I have to prepare for my class.” Clark has more students than any other volunteer - four. He dedicates eight to 10 hours a week to them.

He takes personal pride in their accomplishments. Three of them took the U.S. citizenship exam and all passed with perfect, 20 of 20, scores. “They make the progress but I had a hand in it.”

And the students appreciate him. Sometimes he receives gifts of lettuce fresh from the field. “He is the foundation for everything I've done,” Calderon said.

She was illiterate in English, but not in Spanish when she immigrated 12 years ago. Despite coming from a family of seven, she had advanced to the second year of university in the provincial capital of Morelia before dropping out for lack of finances.

In Lompoc, Calderon, with the support of her husband Enrique, took the initiative.

Library Literacy Coordinator Christine Chill introduced Clark to Calderon when her son Kevin, now 11, was three. Then Calderon gave birth to Adrian, now 7, and Lisette, 5, but pregnancies were only momentary delays.

“She'd be up here writing and holding a bottle with the other hand,” Clark recalled. “That baby is now 5 years old.”

When Calderon signed up, her immediate objectives were simply to help her son with his homework, to read the mail, and to get a better job, but they soon expanded. Her dream was, and still is, to become a special-education teacher.

“My goal has always been the same. Just that my Mexican qualifications don't apply, so I had to start from the bottom,” she said.

Applying for citizenship was Clark's idea. “I owe it all to him,” she said. “I wasn't interested in it at first, but he told me I could do it. I was afraid, but I did it. His explanations were so good I didn't have to memorize anything.”

Clark prides himself on understanding the challenges faced by students who must juggle families, husbands and jobs along with learning. He shifts weekly meeting times as his students request. He even encourages them to bring their kids.

“I try to make them be a part of it,” he said of the children. “They see their mothers learning and it brings rapport between the kids and me. They give me high fives. It also encourages use of the library.”

Clark invites students to bring anything from home that they might have questions about. Frequently they are notes from school. In Calderon's case they have been questions about an English, or CPR, or first-aid class she was taking concurrently.

Calderon may stand out for her tenacious commitment to her advanced educational goal, but she is not fundamentally different from other reading program students, said coordinator Chill.

“When they come in the program, they see getting a job as a long-term goal. As their literacy improves their self confidence improves also and before long they're filling out job applications. “Eighty percent of the students are women,” Chill said.

Chill's 25 volunteers serve 50 students but 16 more have signed up. Some have been waiting for an entire year. In especially short supply are volunteers who will work at night, the only time many students have available.

She estimates that 20 percent of her students are illiterate in any language.

“The goal is to teach reading and writing to people who speak English, but who may not read it or write it,” she specified.

“The book does the teaching,” said Clark. “You're a guide. You don't have to be a teacher. All you have to have is patience and a willingness to help.”

And maybe hold a bottle.

Hemet Library - Area libraries plan for literacy month

Area libraries plan for literacy monthPress-Enterprise: September 25, 2001 by Julie Farren & Marilee Reyes

September is International Literacy Month, during which libraries across the nation emphasize special reading programs for adults and children who have reading problems.

At the same time that schools are back in session, libraries also resume their yearly programs.

The three libraries that serve the San Jacinto and Hemet area are Valle Vista and San Jacinto, both county branches, and Hemet Public Library, a city facility. All offer various literacy programs.

Government statistics have shown that one in five adults in Riverside County cannot read and write well enough to fill out a job application unassisted, said Melodie Earickson, literacy site supervisor for the Library Adult Literacy Program, Southwestern Riverside County.

Among the programs offered countywide are adult tutoring and Families For Literacy. Several libraries have individual programs: Valle Vista Library is beginning Read at Last for school-age children; San Jacinto Library will start Project Dream in November in conjunction with the San Jacinto School District; Hemet Public Library has Please Read to Me for parents with infants.

The Adult Tutoring Program, Read at Last and Project Dream require volunteer tutors to meet the need. A volunteer need not have a professional background. Training is provided.

The library coordinates the tutoring schedule to accommodate both tutor and student and the coordinator is available to advise the tutor and provide on-going evaluation.

For information about Hemet Library programs call (909) 765-2440; for San Jacinto Library call (909) 654-8635; for Valle Vista Library call (909) 926-2611.