Courtesy Photo Mary Ann Crawford has found tutoring with the READ program to be very rewarding.

ALPENA — If you enjoy reading, and can’t imagine life without out, you might want to help others enjoy it too.

Many adults in our community struggle with illiteracy. One way to help is to become a reading tutor with the READ Adult Literacy Program at the Alpena County Library.

A tutor training program is scheduled for three days, Sept. 9, 12, and 16. Tutor trainees must attend all three sessions, which are from 5 to 9 p.m. each evening. Materials and a light meal will be provided at each session, held in the Judith A. Stillion Conference Room. To register, call 989-356-6188, ext. 15.

“This is a wonderful service that the library provides,” said Leslie Kirchoff, who co-coordinates the READ program with Pat Hummel. “It’s completely free to any adult that wants help with learning to read, reading better, learning English as a second language, or help studying for the GED.”

The program has been in place for more than 30 years.

“The library has always provided support for this program,” Kirchoff said.

Tutors will work individually with adults seeking help with basic reading, ESL (English as a Second Language), and GED preparation. Tutors will meet with their student 2 to 3 hours per week.

“Working with adults who want to learn is very rewarding,” said READ tutor Mary Ann Crawford. “I have enjoyed working with adults from Turkey, China, and Columbia who wanted to improve their English skills. We learned a great deal from each other and developed a friendship in the process.”

Once a volunteer completes the training, the new READ tutor will be assigned one student to work with and will meet twice per week for 90-minute tutoring sessions. No teaching experience is necessary to become a READ tutor.

When a volunteer signs up, they typically commit to a year of tutoring, Kirchoff said.

“Pat and I will teach them how to teach an adult to read, what’s an adult student like, how does poverty affect the reading situation, studying for the GED, working with an adult that maybe has a learning disability, different learning styles,” Kirchoff said. “We give them a wide range of information. How do you plan a lesson? How do you start?”

Each training session is vital and different, so that is why all three sessions must be attended.

“So it’s an extensive training compressed into 12 hours, but the good thing is, that Pat and I are in the office three days a week, and always available by phone,” Kirchoff said.

She said when a student comes in, she and Hummel will do an evaluation of their reading level and determine which tutor might be best for that person.

“We kind of get to know them, because we like to make a good match between the student and the tutor, in terms of personality, skill levels, that kind of thing,” Kirchoff said.

“It’s a wonderful thing,” said Janice Boboltz, who has tutored with the READ program. “I’ve gotten some real interesting ones that I’ve fallen in love with.”

Boboltz was a speech pathologist in the public schools, so she worked with students with that kind of disability.

Anne Gentry worked with ESL students from China.

“We’ve had students from Malawi, Turkey, Venezuela, Russia, Japan, Thailand, Guatemala and Mexico,” Kirchoff said. “So in this little community, it’s almost amazing the amount of people that have come to the READ program from all over the world.”

“We have some tutors who’ve been working with the same student for years, and they’ve become really close friends,” Kirchoff said. “It’s really a very rewarding experience.”

Tutors must be 18 or older.

“We are hoping for as many as possible,” Kirchoff said.