Volunteer Appreciation Week: LMS Celebrates Volunteers
National Volunteer Appreciation Week is April 17-23, and Literacy Mid-South (LMS) is celebrating the hard work of the organization's more than 100 volunteer tutors.
For almost 50 years, LMS volunteers have empowered thousands of Mid-Southerners who read below a sixth-grade level or are English Language Learners through reading and English language tutoring.
These services are critical for ensuring adults have the literacy tools necessary to fully participate in an increasingly text-dependent world. Volunteers help adult learners gain the literacy and language skills necessary to achieve personal goals such as improving their workforce skills, getting their driver’s license, and reading with their children and grandchildren.
Despite the interruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, LMS volunteers have continued to make a difference for our community, conducting 750 hours of literacy tutoring over the last year.
“Volunteers are the lifeblood of our adult tutoring services,” said Sam O’Bryant, Executive Director of Literacy Mid-South. “They have continued to step up during this pandemic time to ensure every adult in the Mid-South has the literacy skills necessary to fully realize their goals.”
Asked why she serves, LMS volunteer Renee said, “I enjoy working with students getting their citizenship. I worked with a student from Vietnam who had been in the US for ten years and decided she wanted to be a citizen. She worked really hard and passed the test. I was so pleased to be at the ceremony celebrating her achievement. It makes me incredibly happy to play a small part in helping people achieve life-long goals they have worked extremely hard for. The work I do as a volunteer at Literacy Mid-South is my passion.”
Become a volunteer
If you’re a comfortable reader and fluent in English, you can be trained to be a tutor! Community members interested in becoming a volunteer tutor are invited to attend an info session on Wednesday, May 11. To learn more and sign up, click here.
Literacy Mid-South staff and volunteers are also hosting an informal meet-and-greet at Crosstown Brewery on Tuesday, April 19, 2022, at 6 PM. All interested community members are welcomed to attend.
About Literacy Mid-South
The mission of Literacy Mid-South is to provide literacy resources to learners of all backgrounds and ages. The breadth of this work encompasses a number of programs and goals, all working towards one end: 100% literacy in the Mid-South. Through a combination of strategies including collaborative action, capacity building, resource distribution, and tutoring services, LMS works to ensure learners across the lifespan have access to the literacy resources they need to live their best life. Learn more about Literacy Mid-South and the organization's programs here.