Literacy Council About Us

The Literacy Council of Sumner County's third annual Scrabble Challenge was a huge success, thanks to our generous sponsors and excellent Scrabble players. Ten teams competed for prizes, and a grand time was had by all. The top team, The Rutherford Reptiles, won a prize valued at $60, and second and third prizes were gift certificates for meals at local restaurants.

LCSC Newsletter

May 2011

Beacon VP Loves Her Job

Beacon Senior Vice President Cindi Moore won the "Why I Love My Job" contest in the Tennessean Newspaper in March, with her essay about the joys of serving in the Beacon organization. She speaks of "living a dream," and that "ah-ha" moment when a child realizes he or she can succeed at reading.

LCSC Named in Top 10 Most Influential

The Hendersonville Star News in March named the Literacy Council of Sumner County one of the top ten influential organizations in Sumner County. According to the Star News, the LCSC goes "above and beyond the call of duty in terms of community influence and service."

LCSC Making Progress

In our last reporting quarter, Sept.-Dec. 2010, the Literacy Council of Sumner County had 21 active community volunteers who donated 172 hours of volunteer work to the agency.

In 2009, we served around 62 students. In 2010, we served about 106. There are two interesting things here. The first is that we served more students with about 2/3rds of the number of volunteers we had in 2009 because we were able to hire a part-time literacy coordinator through a grant. In that short amount of time, working 20-25 hours a week, a dedicated staff member enabled us to do more work than could many volunteers. The second interesting thing is that the proportion of children involved in our program nearly doubled this year. There is clearly a need in this community not being met and we are currently working on addressing that need. One thing we are doing is to offer reduced program fees to young students through a grant we received.

Currently, around 80% of our Irlen students see an immediate improvement in either their quality of life or academic performance.

50% of our students in the Beacon program have increased their reading or comprehension by 1.5 grade levels during the 20-session program. One adult student has gained six grade levels of reading ability since his enrollment in the program.

We use a mix of personal goal setting and quantitative measurement to track the progress of the students enrolled in our free volunteer tutoring program. Of those who stay with the program, almost everyone has seen some form of improvement this year. We are really making a difference in the lives of the citizens of Sumner County this year. We expect three or four of our students to graduate either from high school or college this year.

New Vista Volunteer

Meet Jonathan Wiley, a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee. He's a recent graduate of MTSU, with a BS in International Relations. This past year he served as an officer in a student group dedicated to promoting literacy and community outreach, and now he's helping the LCSC achieve our literacy goals for Sumner County. Welcome, Jonathan!

Upcoming Events

Thank you to everyone who supported the LCSC last year. We had a lot of fun with Breakfast With Santa and the Scrabble Challenge, and we hope you did, too. For the 2010-2011 fundraising season there will be a fall literacy event. Details will be announced soon. This event will not be part of the HolidayFest program.

In March we will once again have the Scrabble Challenge.

Featured Student

Jamie Lee Luthy

Jamie Lee Luthy has been selected for Honorable Mention for the 2010 Yes I Can! Award by the Irlen Institute. The Irlen Institute has selected Jamie Lee Luthy for Honorable Mention for the 2010 “Yes I Can!” Award which is given to an individual with Irlen Syndrome who has managed to excel. Her outstanding achievement in the face of hardship is being recognized and rewarded. Congratulations to Jamie Lee.

Our goals for 2010:

Develop an effective community education program.
Strengthen our board and advisory committees.
Impact more lives in Sumner County.

Volunteer Needs

Board of Directors members. Especially volunteers with experience in law or human resources.
Math tutors. Volunteers with basic math skills such as addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, and fractions. Knowledge of algebra and geometry would be helpful. (1-2 hrs. per week).
Office help. Filing, answering phones, entering data. (4-6 hrs. per week.)
QuickBooks help. We're looking for a volunteer to enter our financial information into QuickBooks once a month.

How to Donate

Perhaps you would like to donate $25 in order to help us meet our goal of impacting more lives in Sumner County? If you would like to make a donation, please make your check payable to The Literacy Council of Sumner County, and mail it to: 260 W. Main St., Ste. 111C, Hendersonville, TN 37075 Thank you.

The Literacy Council of Sumner County
Board of Directors

Jeff Coker, President

Jill Grim, Secretary

Linsey Capps

Tina Gabbard

Bryan Jones

Mark Ross

The Literacy Council of Sumner County (LCSC) has nominated one of their volunteer tutors, Sally McCanner, for the Mary Catherine Strobel Volunteer Awards, according to LCSC Director, Margie Anderson.

The Mary Catherine Strobel Volunteer Awards is a program established by Hands On Nashville to recognize volunteers in Middle Tennessee that have selflessly given their time and talent to improve their community. Strobel Awards nominees are invited to attend a luncheon on April 22nd in Cool Springs to celebrate their commitment to service.

“We nominated Sally because of the dedication, flexibility, and caring attitude she has exhibited as a volunteer tutor for the Literacy Council,” states Anderson. McCanner has been a volunteer tutor at the LCSC for two and a half years, and has worked all that time with one student. She has been able to keep her student motivated, and she has worked diligently with him to improve his English skills and help him toward his goal of earning a high school diploma.

“Part of the reason Sally has been such an effective tutor for our agency is that she is adept at coping with her student's schedule changes and shifts in his needs. Sally's been creative in finding materials for him to work with, and she makes herself available in between tutoring sessions if her student needs additional help with homework or is preparing for a test,” says Anderson.

According to McCanner, “Volunteering for the Literacy Council of Sumner County is a good opportunity to meet people I otherwise might never have encountered.” She also trains guide dog puppies, and is currently training her twentieth dog.