Opening pages & new life

Published 7:00 am Saturday, October 20, 2007

Lives change every day inside Sprague Hall room C6 of Skagit Valley College’s Whidbey Island Campus. With every page of a book turned, new doors open. With every new word learned, opportunities arise. With every new sentence spoken, literacy understanding grows and lives are given new meaning.

It is there, inside room C6, that the North Whidbey Literacy program, headed by program director Kay Lundstrom, works to help adults grab onto the love of reading.

“I believe in empowering through education — that’s when we see the success stories,” Lundstrom said.

Next week, Oct. 21 to 27, the literacy program and others across the nation will mark Literacy Awareness Week.

“Illiteracy is something people don’t talk about because there’s such a stigma attached to it,” Lundstrom said.

It’s a week to focus on the everyday mission of Lundstrom and her crew of volunteer tutors: spreading the word that reading help is available on Whidbey.

Lundstrom said that while most people associate literacy with English as a second language or young children, that’s not always the case.

“Adults who enter the program come from various backgrounds,” she said. “It may simply be they fell through the cracks in school, they dropped out of school or received a poor education or they simply never learned how to read.”

Lundstrom said that she often sees a phenomenon of “intergenerational illiteracy.”

“Their parents were illiterate and they passed this down to family members,” said Lundstrom who goes on to explain how society enables people to go through life without being able to read.

“Think about it, you go to the grocery store and there’s all those pictures there to help you,” she said. “And at restaurants they ask you everything so you don’t have to know how to read the menu.”

The program’s main mission is to give its students confidence. It works to take the stigma away.

“Illiteracy isn’t just about people who are poor or who come from another country, it’s about people you and I know who’ve just fallen through the cracks,” Lundstrom said.

The program started in 1990 in coordination with Skagit Valley College. It was housed in a tiny space in the basement of Old Main that was a room, but not a designated classroom.

“It was tiny,” Lundstrom remembered of the space.

At the time it was known as the Oak Harbor Literacy program and was headed by founding director Vicki Matzen and program coordinator Erma Jacobson.

Lundstrom joined the program in 1999, the same year the program received some official branding after school children entered their vision of what literacy meant to them in a logo contest.

The North Whidbey Literacy program is a part of the Literacy Network of Washington, also referred to as Literacy NOW. It is also affiliated with Literacy Volunteer of America and Laubach Literacy.

It is a free tutoring service for adult readers that focuses on teaching adults the skills necessary to read, write, spell and do basic math. It is funded solely by private and organizational donations as well as grants.

The North Whidbey Literacy program, although not a program of the college, receives generous support from the school. It shares materials, computers and classroom space with the Skagit Valley College Whidbey Campus tutoring program, of which Lundstrom is also in charge.

Lundstrom looks forward to future Whidbey campus construction plans that could move the literacy program into spacious new digs.

“The college is a great support system for us,” Lundstrom said.Funding obtained for the literacy program in recent years has afforded Lundstrom the ability to purchase adult-based reading software for the center’s computers, as well as other materials geared toward adult students

The North Whidbey Literacy Program works with the Sno-Isle Libraries Oak Harbor branch to further link students with reading resources. Mary Campbell, managing librarian for Oak Harbor, said the library often gives the Literacy Program students and tutors tours and an introduction to the library.

“We also welcome anyone who’s never visited the library to come ask us to show them around,” Campbell said.

Flora Barlotta, a tutor from Coupeville, sees her lessons helping her students learn so much more than reading.

“If they can read then they have freedom and a voice in the community where they live,” Barlotta said.

The literacy program tutors gear their lessons to fit the goals of their students. The program also works with the Skagit Valley College Whidbey Campus adult basic education program to prepare students to obtain their General Equivalency Degree or transfer into a two-year certificate program.

Lundstrom gives her adult students huge amounts of credit for simply walking into the classroom.

“It’s difficult to learn to read as an adult,” she said. “They have jobs, are parents, and have busy lives that make it difficult to devote time each week to their studies.”

Tutors are in constant need to continue serving the adult students in need.

“Our tutors come from all walks of life,” Lundstrom said. “There are retired teacher but there’s also Boeing employees and seniors simply looking for something to do.”

The only prerequisite?

“Tutors need to have a love for reading and a love for seeing people succeed,” Lundstrom said.

“Our students all come in here with different goals and aspirations,” Lundstrom said. “Some want to get their GED others want to be able to read the driver’s manual. “But people need to know it’s OK to be illiterate. There’s help available and it’s free.”