WACH Fox News

Excitement! Watch Fox News (Channel 6) did a story on Turning Pages Wednesday night on the 10 pm news. I’m very proud of Thomasina, one of our learners for bravely telling her personal story and, perhaps inspiring others who need help and also encouraging volunteers to tutor. Here’s the link for the Fox News story.

We are currently in need of tutors, so if you are available to take another learner or know someone who might want to volunteer, please complete our Volunteer Interest Form here.

– Chris

Inspiration for Tutors Too

With classes starting again, there are plenty of excited students and teachers.  I came across this article and even though it is directed towards teachers, the message applies to anyone who teaches, tutors, trains or facilitates learning.  I hope it inspires future and current Turning Pages tutors.  Enjoy.

What Students Remember Most About Teachers by pursuitofajoyfullife

Your Life Sentence

Photo via

The end of the year and beginning of a new one is a good time to think about Claire Booth Luce’s challenge to write your life sentence. “See if you can summarize your life in one sentence,” she urged her friends.

Mrs. Luce was an accomplished actress, writer and diplomat. Her challenge is one worth addressing. If you summarize the importance of your life in a single sentence, what would you write? How often would you rewrite it? A single sentence forces us to focus on what’s important to us.

What is your life’s purpose?

What have you done with it?

That’s your life sentence.

Here at Turning Pages, with help from fellow Rotarians, volunteer tutors and board members, our purpose is to help adults learn to read or read better, write and acquire other life skills. This serves three vital purposes:

• Their new skills help them win jobs and promotions to raise their incomes to take care of their families.
• It helps people get off government assistance and improve their lives.
• It gives them a sense of value and personal responsibility.

If you would like to help us help more people, please click on “Donate” to the left on this page where you can make a tax-deductible donation before the end of the year. Thank you.

Library Love

Editor’s note: Today’s post comes from former employee and current board member Genevieve Ray Lyons.

Yesterday on my lunch break, I walked over to the Richland Library to check out a book for my book club, and I saw a Turning Pages flyer on the reference librarian’s desk! Fantastic. The libraries in Richland County (Lexington, too, for that matter) have always been pretty supportive of the work we do.  Did you know there are dedicated tutoring rooms available? That way a learner and tutor can meet in public, at the library, with access to thousands of books and magazines, yet still have a little privacy.

Once I went to the St. Andrew’s branch to introduce a new learner and tutor. I began eyeing the little study room and walked in that direction. Next thing I know,  a librarian was kindly but firmly telling me that, “Sorry, ma’am, those rooms are reserved for literacy tutoring.” I told her, that’s great because that’s exactly what we are here for! I learned that several of the libraries have these spaces, and some prefer that you make a reservation in advance, while others just ask that you give the librarian a heads-up when you arrive.

Here’s a few library images to inspire you:

The gorgeous University of Michigan Law Library:

The donor who funded the law school stipulated that any additions or expansions must be in the original architectural style. So when they expanded the law library, they built it underground. Slanted glass windows allow some natural light inside, but I love how it looks on a frozen Ann Arbor night.

The James J. Hill library in St. Paul, Minnesota:

And this cozy little library in the Hermitage of St. Bernadine, New South Wales.

Image credits: first,  second, third. Thanks to everyone who shares their photos under a creative commons license.

For Immediate Release

Lexington – A five-course gourmet wine dinner June 6 will raise money for Turning Pages literacy tutoring.

The tutoring program in Lexington and Richland counties has tutored hundreds of adults with varying literacy skills, to help them learn to read and write, qualify for better jobs and take care of their families.

The dinner will be at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 6, at the Main Street Cafe. 131 East Main St., Lexington, S.C.

The dinner will be hosted by Main Street Cafe owner and chef George Trifos, Sandi Patel of Palmetto Wine and Spirits with wine selection and commentary by Southern Wines and Spirits.

The dinner is sponsored by the West Metro Rotary Club, Lexington Young Professionals, AGGAdvisors,Main Street Cafe, Mirror Associates, Pine Press Printing, Palmetto Wine & Spirits and Lexington County Chronicle.

Help for 73,000 illiterate adults

Editor’s note:(This editorial first appeared in the Lexington County Chronicle June 13, 2013)

How many illiterate adults do you know? How many who can neither read, write nor even count change? What if you were in the same fix? Imagine what your life might be like — filled with shame that even your children are learning skills that you don’t have. You can’t help them with their homework, or  read the Bible, as many of the learners we work with in the Turning Pages tutoring program are motivated to do. Adults who struggle with reading are among an estimated more than 27,000 Lexington County residents — 10% of the county’s population.

They are not alone. Richland County has 46,000 adults who read below a 6th grade reading level. That’s 12% of Richland’s population. In all, 73,000 functionally illiterate adults live in our two counties and studies indicate that  19% or more of the population are below this threshold, in parts of the Midlands. Functional literacy is the ability to read, write and speak proficiently in English, use technology, solve problems, be a life-long learner and effective in  life.

Illiterate adults are not stupid. Many have learning disabilities that make it difficult for them to read and write. Many have mastered skills the rest of us would find daunting. Some are like the short order cook who holds a dozen orders in memory and prepares them without being able to read written orders from the wait staff. Or the driver with a perfect on-time delivery record who cannot read the addresses on the packages he handles. But he can follow a map and his spatial memory is exceptional.

Last week, 60 public-spirited people came together for our first Reading Between the Wines dinner, hosted by Main Street Cafe owner George Trifos and Palmetto Wines & Spirits owner Sandi Patel. The dinner raised almost $1,500 to help Turning Pages tutors make a difference in the lives of their learners.

At the Chronicle, we were happy to be among the dinner’s sponsors with the West Metro Rotary Club, Lexington Young Professionals, AGG Advisers and Pine Press Printing. We hope to arrange a similar fund-raising dinner soon.

One mother’s story of overcoming her learning difference

Editor’s note: Today’s post is the second in a two-part series about one tutoring pair from Turning Pages. Click here to read the first one. Both articles first appeared in the Lexington County Chronicle on May 30, 2013  and are reposted with permission. Lexington Publishing Co., Inc. retains all rights.

What if you could neither read nor write? Imagine what your life might be like — filled with frustration and shame that even your children can do what you cannot do. That’s how Tammy Myers felt as her three boys were growing up, attending school and dealing with homework that she could not help them with.

Tammy is one of more than an estimated 27,000 Lexington County residents who do not read well enough even to fill out applications for the better-paying jobs they need to support their families. Tammy had trouble reading in elementary school. In third grade, she was diagnosed with dyslexia, a neurological disorder that underlies a learning difference. Because people with dyslexia process visual information differently they can experience difficulty with reading, writing, spelling and sometimes even speaking.  People with dyslexia may be of average or above-average intelligence. Dyslexia is different from impaired vision or hearing.

“Reading is difficult for me,” Tammy says. “If someone reads it to me, I can understand it. When it comes to writing, I’m lost.” Tammy’s parents were divorcing, a traumatic experience for her and her younger sister. As a result, her mother had to move her daughters repeatedly. By the time she reached high school, Tammy had attended eight different schools. Tammy’s teachers did not know how to help her, she wrote in a narrative about her life for the Chronicle, so she was put in special education classes which did little to help.

She began to suffer with pain in her knees. After three months, she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a condition that results in chronic widespread pain.  Some say it is like a tooth ache all over your body.

While working at a Waffle House, Tammy was working on her 11th and 12th grade credits at an alternative school when she was told all her credits but five had been lost. Disheartened, she quit school, found another job and met her husband. Tragic as her story is, it is not uncommon among those who cannot read.

Tammy is determined to do something about it.

She meets regularly with Sandra Dayse, a Turning Pages literacy tutor at the Lexington District 1 adult learning center at the former Intermediate School on Harmon Street. Tammy has found that she can learn better when she hears than when she tries to read, a result of her dyslexia. But she has made a commitment to qualify for her General Education Diploma (GED). She wrote a four-page biography of her life using an app on her cell phone. It allows her to tell her story into the phone and convert it into writing.

She believes that will help her get a better job and help her husband with their family’s expenses. “Turning Pages and First Steps has been such a help to me,” Tammy says.  “Now I want to do what I can to help.”

To find out what YOU can do to help, give us a call at 803-782-1210.

Signs of progress

Many Turning Pages learners have their sights set on attaining their GED diplomas. Their reason: They can qualify for better jobs with higher pay and careers with a future.

The latest good news is that tutoring with us and through other Adult Education programs has raised the GED test passing rates to an all-time high of 77.6%.

According to Jay Ragley at the S.C. Education Department, enrollment in adult education programs has steadily declined the last 10 years due to several factors. The federal government has been emphasizing student performance, not program enrollment. The United States Department of Education is more interested in the students we serve making progress toward their education goals than how many students are served.

Since State Adult Education funds are based partially on student performance, not just head count, more adult education programs are concentrating on keeping students longer in their tutoring programs. Increased high school graduation rates and reduced dropout rates may have had an impact on the number of individuals enrolling in Adult Education.

Even though Adult Enrollment has declined, the number of individuals earning a GED diploma and the increased GED pass rate is an indicator that student performance has improved.

This does not mean we can sit back and relax.

The latest figures on functionally illiterate adults in Richland County is 12% of the total population and 10% in Lexington County. We are talking about more than 70,000 of our friends and neighbors who are reading at below sixth grade level.

If you would like to become a tutor or know someone who needs tutoring, please call us at 782-1210.

A Valentine to Books

Editor’s note: This blog post comes from board member and NPR lover Genevieve Lyons.

Did any of ya’ll hear Nature Notes this morning? Every day on ETV Radio, Rudy Mancke shares a little tidbit (60 seconds!) from his vast knowledge about local flora and fauna.  He might answer a listener question about an insect or creature, tell an anecdote from a recent encounter with nature, or give a tip to watch for a tree or flower that is coming into bloom.

Today, he answered an unusual question. It is almost as if Turning Pages had called him up and requested a valentine to books. I just had to share it with you all.

For a short and lovely reminder of the meaning of the gift of literacy: Books!

If any of you, dear readers, would like to share your own valentine, favorite book, or encounter with literacy, I’d love to talk to you. Email me: genevieve {dot} ray {at} gmail {dot} com.

Luck of the Draw

Editor’s note: Today’s post comes from community leader and board member Jerry Bellune.

The need for Turning Pages tutoring constantly reminds me how lucky I am. I was born into a middle class family of readers and story tellers. My mother read to us at bedtime and taught me to read and write at age 4.

She wrote to my father who was away in school in Chicago several times a week. She always let me append a few words about what I was doing while he was away. That was a real thrill. I could picture my father in my mind reading what I had written. He was hundreds of miles away from us in South Carolina but with words we could talk. I have been reading and writing ever since.

My parents’ influence and my education have made major differences in my life. They led me to become a journalist, editor, teacher and business owner. Now I also write, edit and publish books.

I am far more fortunate than millions of illiterate Americans.

One survey estimates 42 million in our country can’t read above sixth grade level. That’s a shocking statistic in a country with mandatory public education. What’s even more shocking is that 1 million more join them each year.

To help raise money for literacy tutoring, we offer copies of my books for donations. If you are interested in a personally autographed copy, call us at 782-1210. For a $20 donation, I will autograph one of these inspiring books for you.

Jerry Bellune

The #2 Small Business Authority

Yes, like Avis, we try harder

www.JerryBellune.biz

803-331-6695

PO Box 1500

Lexington SC 29071-1500

Winners have faith.

They believe in themselves,

their purpose and higher calling.