By: Ginger Duiven, Executive Director
With winter on the run, the energy in the air all around us has shifted. Have you noticed it too? People are just a bit more upbeat, quick to share an easy smile and offer a couple of friendly words of greeting. So it is in the classrooms and halls of Literacy Services. There is a definite buzz as our classrooms fill each day. The sounds of tutors and students working together side by side or across the desk make the place vibrate with energy. Exclamations at an “ah-ha” learning moment, the quiet repetition of sounds and words being mastered, the patient explanations, the practiced and the mastered recitations, the inquiries and answers add to the buzz. There are the soundless contributions to the energy too: eyes looking up searching the sky for the answer just out of reach, the determined squint at the computer screen, the focused attention on a writing assignment. And there are smiles shared between adults working together to unlock their potential.
Yes, unlock their potential. Because, if I learned anything about this magical place, I have learned that it’s both adults in the learning partnership between tutor and student who are unlocking potential. The tutors are unlocking their knowledge, their compassion, and their abilities to teach, share, encourage and believe in someone. They bring their hope and courage that what they know and their ability to share will help somebody else who wants it. The student is engaged in the very human act of daring greatly. He is daring to believe that he can change his life, he can learn even if he’s been told he can’t, he dares to believe he is up to the challenges ahead despite the odds, the barriers, the risks and the past.
This energy is created and sustained by the reciprocity of giving and growing. When you meet someone where they are, open yourself to them, and then work together on a shared goal it is quite possibly one of the most rewarding of human experiences. The results are often surprising and may not be what either the tutor or the student expected. The combined energy definitely equals more than two.
This work changes the world, two flourishing people at a time. I can feel the energy, can you?
Literacy Services is in need of more volunteers to keep the energy going and growing. Do you know someone who is ready to unlock their potential and has 90 minutes to give each week? We need more tutors in all of our programs now. Do you know someone who would like to help but can’t spare that much time consistently? We have a new volunteer position, Advancement Coach, which requires less of a time commitment. Email volunteer@literacyservices.org for more information.
Please save the date for our 50th Anniversary Celebration Dinner.
September 17, 2015 at 5:30pm we will gather to celebrate through the stories of those have lived this experience.
We hope you will join us!
