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A tutor and student work together as part of Bland County’s Creative Literacy program. The organization is seeking new students, tutors, partners and board members. Contributed photo

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For the love of learning

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

Close your eyes and imagine a simple gift that allows someone access to history, to fantasy worlds, to everyday news, to maps, even to products at the grocery store.
Now imagine that the gift costs nothing to give and doesn’t diminish your own assets one bit. 
Open your eyes.
It’s time you taught someone to read.
Creative Literacy Inc. has been helping people in Bland County improve their reading skills since 1991. Yet many people who zoom by the office located at 8896 S. Scenic Highway have no inkling about the transformations that occur in the small building.
“Just to be able to live functionally in society we need to have some reading ability,” said Sister Carmelle Malerich, the director of the program since 1992. “In our country, we’ve gone from an oral society to a reading society. Everything – signs, things at the gas pump, the store, just regular living.”
The organization began by serving just adults who were seeking to improve their reading skills. Recently, though, Malerich said the program has expanded to serve all ages.
Creative Literacy also has started to do some work with people learning to read through the English as a Second Language initiative.
There are no minimum reading proficiency requirements for joining the program, and likewise there is no maximum reading level that makes a person ineligible for the tutoring sessions.
“We’ve opened it up in the last few years to anyone,” Malerich said. “Wherever there’s a need, that’s what we do.”
The program has five active students, with a few others who are taking scheduled breaks before restarting their lessons.
All services are confidential and provided free of charge. Malerich said they at first ask people to commit to meeting for one-hour lessons twice each week, but she added that they’re willing to be flexible if people have jobs or other activities that make two meetings a week unfeasible.
Lessons are done one-on-one with a tutor either in the Creative Literacy office or at a mutually convenient location such as a library.
In addition to seeking new students, Malerich said she’s also hoping to get more community members involved with the program as tutors, partners and board members.
Anyone interested in volunteering or taking advantage of Creative Literacy’s services can call Malerich at (276) 688-3423.
Partners provide financial backing for the program, which the organization uses to pay rent on the building and for supplies such as books, computer software and tutoring materials. Malerich described board members as “fundraisers and policymakers,” helping out with tweaking the group’s by-laws and events such as a spelling bee at the Festival of Leaves.
“Interest is the basic thing,” Malerich said about the requirements for being a tutor, partner or board member. “If you can read, you can teach somebody else.”
Tutors are provided with training to help them come up with teaching ideas and strategies to motivate their students.
Malerich also encouraged people who may be referring someone to the program to come along with them on their first day.
“It’s a scary thing,” she acknowledged about trying to learn to read, especially as an adult. “If they come with them and introduce them to us…we can take it from there.”
Della Mae Neel of Ceres was willing to share her story of how her reading lessons through Creative Literacy have improved her life.
Neel said she meets with a tutor once each week. A Bland County native, she said she’s trying to catch up on education that she missed out on as a child.
“I quit school in the seventh grade to take care of my sisters and brothers,” Neel said, adding that she was the oldest daughter in a large family.
This winter alone, Neel said she’s read and done reports on seven or eight books.
“I love reading now,” she said. “I know more about reading books than I ever did before.”
Danny Fisher of Bastian had a similar story to Neel’s, saying he dropped out of school in eighth grade to help take care of his family. He later returned to school and completed 10th grade, but stopped again.
“I just want to try and get a little bit more education,” he said. “It has helped out a whole lot.”
Fisher added that he enjoys doing mechanical work and that his improved reading abilities have helped him be able to better understand instructional manuals.
Being a part of success stories like those of Neel and Fisher makes volunteering with Creative Literacy worthwhile, said Sister Frankie Barber, who also has been involved with the program since the early 1990s.
Barber now serves as the organization’s treasurer and she also has been tutoring for a few years, putting in more hours since her retirement in 2003 from working in the department of correctional education with the Bland Correctional Center.
“It’s always a pleasure when someone really begins to understand and be able to figure out words and meanings,” she said. “It’s a pleasure for them as well as for me.”
Since Creative Literacy has expanded to serve all ages, Barber said there’s an added challenge of varying her teaching style depending on whether she is working with a younger student or an adult.
Regardless of who she is tutoring, though, Barber said each person who improves their reading skills benefits the area as a whole.
“I think when you’re working with the Creative Literacy board and you’re helping people in the county, you’re helping everyone,” she said. “I’m always happy when there’s success.”
Nate Hubbard can be reached at 1-800-655-1406 or .