‘So basic and so important’: How literacy volunteers are helping to change lives for the better

Imagine if we had an army of volunteers willing to take the time to teach the English language to immigrants.

If the small sample size we see out of Literacy Volunteers Fox Valley teaches us anything, it is this: Immigrants need this kind of help more than ever in today’s political climate, and it is absolutely life-changing in a positive way.

“It can be so basic and so important,” Tracy Kelsey, executive director of LVFV, said of the interaction between tutors and students. “It’s not always just wanting perfect grammar, and sometimes that is not their goal, it’s just being communicative enough to get by, at least to start.”

The 132 tutors in place this summer for LVFV are making sure the current 168 adult students are getting that starting chance, which can help them seek jobs, advance in those jobs, and have a better grip on all facets of life around them.

In turn, they get a better handle on what it means to be a U.S. citizen, a skill they can pass along to their families or friends seeking legal status as an immigrant.

This is what we are supposed to be doing for those who want to contribute to our country — and seek our help to do so. Part of that is helping with the immigration process, but mostly it’s about grasping our language.

“Without literacy skills, people struggle with their health and safety,” said Kelsey, who has been in the lead role at LVFV since April.

“They may not be able to communicate with health-care providers, or don’t understand what the prescriptions are, or can’t fill out medical forms,” she added. “Or, you come here and there are tornado sirens or alerts for weather and you don’t know what they mean, it can be really scary and overwhelming, and it can be isolating.”

Though new to the vital work of advancing literacy, Kelsey, a resident of Geneva, came to LVFV’s home base in the St. Charles Public Library with an extensive background in organization leadership.

She served as executive director of Pay-It-Forward House, a nonprofit organization based in Sycamore, as well as holding previous leadership roles at Northern Illinois Food Bank, where she served as Child Nutrition Program manager, human resources director, compensation analyst and advocacy manager. She also worked with Marine Corps Community Services as a civilian employee.

Becoming part of her team as a volunteer tutor at LVFV, which has been providing free tutoring to immigrants since 1986, calls for four nights of training. LVFV offers these four-night sessions eight times a year.

“There is no needed experience, though we tend to get retired educators, but we do get people who have no teaching experience,” Kelsey said.

The training provides teaching skills and examples of different types of students, and explains the organization’s goals. LVFV seeks to match tutors and students based on the current English skills of the student.

“I tell volunteers to go through training and just see what they think,” Kelsey said. “It can feel intimidating, but everyone I have spoken to has found it so rewarding.”

The relationship, or teaching time frame, between tutor and student is open-ended. Some pairings are short-term to master specific skills, others can last for years, Kelsey noted.

Students come to LVFV through referrals from friends or family members, or an employer who is aware of the literacy tutoring option.

“I attended our annual tutor-student celebration in June, and it was amazing to witness all of the relationships that were built and have grown,” Kelsey said. “I was listening to a student talk about how she feels more confident and comfortable.

“She got her driver’s license, and got a job,” Kelsey added. “And the one thing she is really proud of is that she could speak to her children’s teachers and was able to support and encourage her kids in school.”

As it would be with any program teaching adults the English language, LVFV is serving Hispanic, Asian, Arab, African and European immigrants.

“Better literacy skills can help a person better integrate into their community, with the obvious one being able to get jobs and (advance to) better jobs,” Kelsey noted.

“It’s not just that you should be able to speak English,” she added. “It’s about not being able to navigate daily living without some English literacy skills — and that is what is so important about it.”

More information about the tutoring program or educational services is available on the lvfv.org website.

Another pen pal search

My recent column about a Geneva woman’s search to finally locate her pen pal of more than 60 years ago resonated with Beth Cooper-Zobott of Bartlett.

Cooper-Zobott sent an e-mail about her similar desire to hook up with Shoba, a pen pal she has never met in person, but who now lives in Bath, England.

Through a series of pen pals, it was Shoba who kept writing to Cooper-Zobott through the girls’ college years. “But we eventually lost touch with each other,” Cooper-Zobott noted.

“One day, around 1998, I got a call from my parents,” Cooper-Zobott wrote. “They had received a forwarded letter from Shoba, as she had sent a letter to the house I grew up in, in Elgin.”

The owners who had bought the house from her parents forwarded Shoba's letter to them in Florida. Her parents sent it on to Cooper-Zobott in Bartlett.

It allowed her to again connect with Shoba via the written word.

“It was astonishing to read that Shoba and my careers had taken similar paths: international business, focusing on the hospitality industry,” Cooper-Zobott wrote. “I worked as a corporate meetings and events director, while she worked on the hotel side of the business.”

Cooper-Zobott and her husband are discussing a cruise that would take them to England, where they could visit with Shoba, who moved there from South India.

Tootsies for a cause

We have come to know it simply as the annual Tootsie Roll Drive, when Knights of Columbus members wearing yellow vests dot street corners, major intersections and other locations as they hand out Tootsie Rolls and collect donations.

The actual name of the fundraiser is Campaign for People with Intellectual Disabilities. By any name, whether or not you like Tootsie Rolls, this is the time, from Thursday, Sept. 10, through Sunday, Sept. 13, to make a donation.

In the Tri-Cities area of central Kane County, the Knights of Columbus No. 2191 report that last year’s campaign brought in $30,800 that was distributed to Marklund, Association for Individual Development, Fox Valley Special Recreation Association, Giant Steps, Rising Lights Project, Special Camps, Valley Sheltered Workshop and local zone of Special Olympics Illinois.

And, for the record, I do like Tootsie Rolls.

Red kettle golfing

To honor its 75th year of service, the TriCity Corps of the Salvation Army is holding “A Round for the Red Kettle” fundraiser golf outing Monday, Sept. 28, at Pottawatomie Golf Course in St. Charles.

In addition to acknowledging the work of the Salvation Army in the region, the outing also honors the late Jim Wheeler, the Pottawatomie Golf Course pro from 1980 until his retirement in 2011.

Wheeler, a major supporter and advisory board member of the TriCity Corps of the Salvation Army, used his pro shop at Pottawatomie for decades as a drop-off location for the annual Christmas toy drives.

The nine-hole outing costs $75 per player.

More information is available at redkettlegolfouting@gmail.com or registration is taken by calling (224) 523-1028.

• Dave Heun is a freelance columnist based in Geneva, IL. He can be reached at dheun@sbcglobal.net