There was a chilly nip in the air last Wednesday evening, but the 130 guests at the Reading Between the Wines Cocktails and Silent Auction event to benefit Literacy Services of Indian River County took it in stride; warmed by the cozy fire at the lovely Windsor Beach Club.
Literacy Services provides free tutoring to adults and high school students struggling with literacy, including English as Second Language students. Its supporters recognize the importance of adult literacy as a means to combat generational illiteracy; realizing that a child’s academic success is tied into the literacy skills of the caregiver.
Author and board member Evelyn Mayerson was drawn to the organization several years ago and has since enlisted the support of fellow Windsor residents, including Fran Mellett and Herb Fitz Gibbon, co-chairs of Wednesday’s event, and author Cynthia Bardes, guest speaker at last year’s Love of Literacy Luncheon.
When asked how she first got involved, Mayerson pointed at Mary Silva, the organization’s executive director, and said with a laugh, “I met her and she talked so fast, before I could say no I’d already said yes. It’s been a pleasure to be on this board.”
“The co-chairs have been absolutely incredible,” said board president Don Mann. “We have 35 auction items and Fran got most all of them.”
“Herb and I went to the luncheon and we both thought it was a great organization and wanted to get more involved,” said Mellett.
“First off, Mary Silva knocks the cover off the ball,” said Gibbon, adding that he was inspired by a man who spoke at the luncheon. “Public speaking is a nightmare anyway, but even harder when you can hardly read your notes. After hearing how grateful the man was, I said, this is really good.”
Gibbon is currently tutoring a 28-year-old Honduran woman working toward her GED. “She can read anything but has a very small vocabulary. We go to the library but the problem is she works full time so it’s hard. She’s so appreciative and so ambitious. She’s really working hard.”
The evening’s guest speaker was Terry Lyons, author of Bar Hopping Thru America and Drinking Around the World and winner of the Florida Writers Association Royal Palm Literary Award, who entertained the crowd with stories about some of his most memorable experiences.
Guests also heard from student Stefanie Sidell-McKemie, tutored by Ann Hill since November. She shared that she has always struggled with literacy, but wants to be able to read with her young children saying, “I don’t want them to feel like I did; I felt stupid. I want to feel confident.”
“This event is going to help us so much with more reading materials,” said Mann, adding there is also a great need for additional tutors. “We have more than 50 adult students on the waiting list. We have a little more than 150 active tutor student relationships.”
He reiterated the importance of family literacy to support initiatives such as the Moonshot Moment goal of having 90 percent of third-grade children reading at grade level by 2018,
“We have student parents now who have gained enough confidence to go to the schools. They’re not afraid to go to the teachers; they’re not afraid to go to PTA meetings,” said Mann. “We have one mother whose mother and grandmother were functionally illiterate and so was she. She’s in her 40s and she’s now insisting that her daughter go to college. Here we have stopped functional illiteracy in one family. We could do it with many more. It gives people the self-confidence to go further and get better jobs and get them off food stamps and welfare.”
