Crawford County Volunteers for Literacy

Charles Dye

Charles moved to Arkansas when he was one year old.  In second grade, he was placed in a “special” class.  After he graduated from high school, he moved to Hot Springs for career training. He worked for a while, but business was slow.  In 1992, Charles moved to the Fort Smith area hoping to better himself.  He now lives in Van Buren with his wife and seven year old son. His family is the love of his life.
In summer 2008, Charles decided to come to the Crawford County Volunteers for Reading (CCVL) read, spell and write better. Charles was placed with a tutor. He has made much progress. He has the drive, work ethics and the “I can” attitude to accomplish and do anything he wants to do.
Charles is becoming an independent reader and visits the CCVL Student Library weekly. He uses books from the Mid-America Graphic History, Bio-Graphics and National Parks series because these are topics of interest to both he and his young son. Many times, Charles chooses books related to his young son’s units of work and study, which help him be involved in his son’s education.
In February, when Charles’ young son was studying about the Underground Railroad, Charles checked out the biography about Rosa Parks. Charles and his son read the book together.
Charles’ goal in his drive to succeed in becoming a better adult reader is two-fold.  One is to become a better reader so he could compete for a better job and provide for his family. The other is that he will be able to encourage and participate in helping his child get an education the first time around.
The daily reading involvement/successes Charles is having with his personal educational gains allows for him to be an integral part of his son’s educational success.

Susan Nelson

Susan Nelson came to the Crawford County Volunteers for Literacy (CCVL) after she visited a CCVL recruiting booth in the Van Buren Walmart Supercenter on April 4, 2008.  During the interview, Susan had a sparkle in her eye when she talked about her six children learning to read, saying how reading could take a person to unknown places of adventure.  She also talked about the joy and importance of reading.  One didn’t have to ask if she was an avid reader because the word “reading” not only put a sparkle in her eyes, but a smile on her face.  During the first ten minutes of the interview, it was evident that CCVL had recruited a live one for a reading tutor. That she is and she is much more! Susan is dedicated to her students and goes beyond the call of duty to have her students meet constant success. Some of them call or come by the tutoring site just to talk with her. They come even on days when they are not scheduled to attend her tutoring sessions! Susan knows the importance of an education because she experienced first-hand how difficult it is to find a job without an education. She was forty when she went back to school to get her GED – and had her six children. This tutor is an inspiration to all who meet her. Susan is always happy and she wears a smile. Her heart is pure and she is eager for others to succeed.  She never leaves for the weekend before her lesson plans are done, and supplemental materials, such as magazines and newspapers, are ready for the next week. Her students love her because she has been where they are now! They know that, because she has walked the walk, they walk today. She can talk the talk with a wink that sends the message, “I did it, you can too!”  Then you hear someone ask her, “What was the name of that book you thought I should read this weekend?” Susan answers, “Come with me to the CCVL Library area and you can check it out to read this weekend, and we can talk about the book next week when you come to tutoring!”

Carlos Vidal

Carlos came to Crawford County Volunteers for Literacy (CCVL) with two goals in mind. The first goal was to become an American citizen and the second was to learn to read, write and speak English more fluently. In order to accomplish his first goal, Carlos had to spend many hours in class. He had to arrange his class time around his work schedule. 

He came to Citizenship class immediately after work and then remained for his ESL class. This made for a very long day and he did it twice per week. Sometimes he would come on another day to meet with Mr. James for his Citizenship class. On April 26, 2007 he met his first goal and passed his Citizenship exam. He will soon be sworn in as an American citizen. Carlos continues to work on his second goal. 

We are happy to claim Carlos as one of CCVL’s success stories! 

Karen Ridenhower

Karen came to Crawford County Volunteers for Literacy (CCVL) because her mother, who lived in Washington, was very ill and she wanted to learn to write a letter to her. She also needed to learn how to read and spell better. She had graduated from high school, but needed to do much better. 

The letter to her mother had to be written soon because her mother was very ill. She wrote the letter and by doing so she achieved one of her goals. She continued to attend tutoring class and met her reading and spelling goals too. 

Karen became Arkansas Literacy Student of the Year in 2004. She has had three promotions and now serves as “lead” in the meat department of a Wal-Mart store; she no longer loads and unloads trucks. She also serves as Student Representative on the CCVL Board of Directors. She has recruited twelve students who have attended or are attending CCVL classes. She plans to continue serving as a CCVL student recruiter. In addition, Karen has been responsible for CCVL receiving four Wal-Mart grants, the fourth being awarded in 2006. 

Thank you Karen for serving as a CCVL volunteer and for your success story. 

Phanthong Sisoukrath

Phanthong Sisoukrath came to Crawford County Volunteers for Literacy (CCVL) after he had taken the U.S. Citizenship Test and did not pass. He was placed in Mr. James’ class and he came every day for two to three hours. He did this while working at Whirlpool at every night. After some time, it was time for him to retake the exam. He passed and was sworn in as an American citizen in September 2006. He met his goal and is now planning to attend classes to learn to read and write better English in order to qualify for a better job. 

On the day Phanthong became an American citizen, he changed his first name to Alan, an American name. CCVL is very proud to claim Alan as one of our success stories. 

Greg Beaty 

When Mr. Greg Beaty came to CCVL he came with very definite goals. He is soon to become a father and this has brought home the fact that he need a better education to enable him to get and keep employment at a level that will allow him to support his family. 

When Greg came to CCVL and went through the initial testing, it was discovered that he had some vision problems. The Lions Club of Van Buren was able to make an appointment for him with Dr. Crawford. During the eye exam, Dr. Crawford identified Greg’s problem and fitted him with glasses that have enabled him to read words at a smaller font without having recurring headaches. 

Greg is now attending literacy classes and has begun to read with a much greater level of comprehension. He is moving forward with his studies and is gaining in competency as well as confidence. 

Last Thursday, while Greg was entering the CCVL office to attend his tutoring session, he stopped to talk to a repairman who happened to be working on the gutters and down spouts on the building. He asked the repairman if he was hiring people. The repairman called his boss and Greg went to work the next day! 

Greg has become a very happy young man because he has achieved his goals for a new life: reading better and gaining better employment. Another goal is to obtain his G.E.D. 

Greg is now moving forward with a new set of goals and is looking forward to achieving them so that he can continue to better his life and support his soon-to-be family.

Moyene Phosovang 

Moyene Phosovang came to the United States from Laos in December 1981. She came here to have a better life for herself and her family. Prior to coming to the U.S. she studied in Thailand for three months. 

Moyene found employment with O.K. Foods in Fort Smith after arriving here and worked there for six months. She has since gotten better employment and pay at Simmons. One of Moyene’s goals is to become a citizen of this country. She strived for and achieved this goal in 2003. She was allowed to use an interpreter during the process. 

Moyene came to CCVL with the specific goals of learning to speak, read and write English. She has also achieved these goals, but is working to practice them at a higher level. 

She is responsive to the exercises and homework assignments given to her in her ESL classes. She comes to class twice weekly for a total of four hours per week. She is reading aloud in class. She is using phonetics and the contents of the sentences to figure out what the words are that she does not know. She is writing in her journal on a regular basis. 

Education is extremely important to Moyene. She has raised her two children here in the States and both are engineers. One of her children has become an electrical engineer and the other has become a civil engineer. 

One of her homework assignments was to write about her family tree. She was to identify who they were, write their names, where they lived, and what they did for a living. She loves computers and is rapidly becoming computer literate.