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January  
2014
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Message From the Director

 

Happy New Year! A tremendous thanks to everyone who supported us by contributing to AACLC this past year. We realize that there are many worthwhile causes in our community and greatly appreciate that you choose to support the Literacy Council with your donation. Thanks to your support we can continue to help improve the lives of adults and out-of-school youth, while expanding our free literacy and ESL instruction program in Anne Arundel County.
 
Gratefully,

 

Lisa Vernon
Director, Anne Arundel County Literacy Council
410-269-4419 (office)
410-798-0408 (home)         

 Koons Annapolis Toyota's
  25 Days of Giving Update
 

Koons Annapolis Toyota gave the AACLC a $5,000 donation on

Lisa Vernon and Wendell Williams
December 14th as part of their 25 Days of Giving Campaign. The check was presented to Lisa by Wendell Williams, General Manager of Koons Annapolis Toyota.

Koons Annapolis Toyota has a strong history of giving back to their community and their generosity is having a big impact on Anne Arundel County.  If you get a chance to stop by Koons Annapolis Toyota on West St. in Annapolis, please be sure to thank them for their incredible donation to the Literacy Council.


Tutor Spotlight 

 

  

Cindy Toft, Tutor
Cindy Toft is changing many lives through literacy! On Tuesday and Thursday mornings she tutors two moms, from The Head Start Program at Shady Side, MD., who are working towards their GED. These moms are proud of the example they are setting for their children and are eager to improve their literacy skills so that they can get a job. On Monday and Wednesday evenings, Cindy tutors a Davidsonville husband and wife who would like to improve their reading and writing skills to get better paying jobs. In addition to tutoring, Cindy is also an active Student Assessor for the Literacy Council.

"Volunteering as a tutor for the Literacy Council has been a blessing in my life" says Cindy.  "I have had the opportunity to meet adults who want to become a better person by improving their lives and they decided to give themselves the gift of reading.   What I like most about being a tutor is watching my student's face light up when a word they had difficulty reading suddenly  becomes easy for them to read.  I can see their self esteem growing and they are eager to learn new words and before they know it they are reading an entire story on their own." 

"I try very hard to give my students compliments on how well they are doing and they reward me by wanting to learn more.  We try to make it fun and laugh during our session.  If the student is relaxed then we are able to accomplish more with our lesson. The greatest gift I can give a person is helping them make a difference in their life and become a more independent person and this is what I have accomplished with the Literacy Council".

 

 

New Tutor Training Opportunity

     

Best Collage
Previous Tutor Classes

If you would like to take AACLC's tutor training, now is your chance!  Our training will familiarize you with the Laubach teaching materials we use, and will cover both basic literacy and ESL instruction. Here are the details:  

 

9:00am-4:00pm on Saturday, February 22nd

and

9:00am - 12:00 Noon, Saturday, March 8th

 

at  

Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church

611 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd, Severna Park, MD

 http://www.acswebnetworks.com/woods/directions  


Class size will be limited to 35 participants. If interested, please email programdirector@aaclc.org or call 410-269-4419 as soon as possible to reserve a seat.

 

 

AACLC New Database Update

From the  "J"

Team 

     

Jae, Jeanne and Joanne 

During January Jae Sherwood, Jeanne DeCamps, and JoAnn Cook will be entering our student and tutor data into the new database. We are fortunate to have their dedication and expertise at work on this big project, which once completed will help us compete for grants.  

 

 

Food for Thought...

 

 

"Some people might tell you that books are no longer necessary now that we have the internet. Don't believe them...


Books build bridges to the lives of others, both the characters in them and your countless fellow readers across other lands and other eras, and in doing so elevate you and anchor you more solidly into your own life. They give you a telescope into the minds of others, through which you begin to see with ever greater clarity the starscape of your own mind.

 

And though the body and form of the book will continue to evolve, its heart and soul never will. Though the telescope might change, the cosmic truths it invites you to peer into remain eternal like the Universe.

 

In many ways, books are the original internet - each fact, each story, each new bit of information can be a hyperlink to another book, another idea, another gateway into the endlessly whimsical rabbit hole of the written word. Just like the web pages you visit most regularly, your physical bookmarks take you back to those book pages you want to return to again and again, to reabsorb and relive, finding new meaning on each visit -because the landscape of your life is different, new, "reloaded" by the very act of living."

 

From Maria Popova's 2012 book titled Big Questions from Little People & Simple Answers from Great Minds, in which some of today's greatest scientists, writers, and philosophers answer kids' most urgent questions, deceptively simple yet profound.    

2013 Top Rated Great Nonprofit
 Award   
 
  TOP rated Non-PROFIT 2013   Top Rated NonProfit 2012
 
We did it again! We have won both the 2012 and  2013 Top-Rated Great Nonprofits award, as well as the GuideStar Exchange Seal, demonstrating our commitment to transparency. Please take a moment to check out our 40 five-star reviews.  

 

Since its founding in 2007, GreatNonprofits has grown into the leading provider of reviews and ratings of nonprofit organizations throughout the U.S. GreatNonprofits has received media coverage in Newsweek, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Alliance magazine, and on NPR, and is endorsed by USA Today, the Economist, Huffington Post, and the LA Times. 
Top Rated NonProfit 2012 ProLiteracy Logo unitedway

Contact
Anne ArundelCounty
Literacy Council, Inc.

410-269-4419 / programdirector@aaclc.org

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P.S. it's not to late to respond to our annual appeal