Literacy volunteer shares gift of reading

Breta Duncan can’t imagine a life without reading, and she shares her lifelong love for reading with others as a tutor with Literacy Volunteers of Flathead County.

“I can’t ever remember not being able to read,” said Duncan, one of more than 60 volunteers who work with people who want to improve their literacy skills or learn English as a second language.

“People who can’t read aren’t able to reach their full potential. They’re missing out on so much. I feel so strongly about it that I want to help.”

Literacy Volunteers, a United Way member agency, provides free and confidential tutoring for children and adults, serving 191 people last year.

Literacy Volunteers programs include Basic Literacy, English as a Second Language, Family Literacy/Intensive English as a Second Language, Juvenile Literacy at the Detention Center, Citizenship Classes and Literacy Outreach — reading to seniors and other special friends.

Literacy Volunteers is just one of the many agencies and services that benefit from the local United Way campaign, which is under way through Dec. 31.

The theme of the campaign is “Touch a Life” and the monetary goal is $850,000. Last year, United Way member agencies helped nearly 57,000 people in need. Ninety-nine percent of all funds raised stay in local communities to help local citizens.

Duncan, who is employed by the Montana Department of Transportation, became trained as a literacy volunteer about five years ago after moving to Kalispell from Great Falls.

Assisted by an interpreter, she worked for two years with a young woman who was deaf.

“It was so rewarding,” Duncan said. “I think she came out of it a more confident person. She just bloomed. She taught me a lot.”

Her next students were three children whose family had moved to Kila from the Ukraine. She traveled to their home once a week, and found that she was helping them with more skills than just English, including how to tell time and learning about money.

“They were just wonderful,” she said. “I loved all of them.”

Literacy Volunteer tutors get to know the people they’re tutoring and help them reach their goals, whether it’s learning to read a recipe book or being able to read their Bible.

Duncan said volunteering to help people read is one of the most rewarding things she’s ever done.

“It’s what they give to you,” she said. “It’s the feeling you get by helping someone make their life better.”

No special expertise is needed, she said, just a willingness to help.

“You have no idea what you can offer until you do it,” she said. “I might not know a noun from a verb, but I can help people. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist, you just have to want to give.”

Duncan’s next assignment will be working with five 13-year-old girls at Sinopah House, a home for girls in crisis.

“You never know where you’re going to end up,” Duncan said. “If there’s one 13-year-old girl I can help get through that age, I’ve always felt I had something to offer.”

In addition to Literacy Volunteers of Flathead County, current United Way Member Agencies are Big Brothers and Sisters, Boy Scouts, Boys and Girls Clubs of Glacier Country, Eagle Transit, First Call for Help-Help Net, Flathead CARE, Flathead Food Bank, Flathead Youth Home, Girl Scouts, Head Start, Mental Health Crisis Line, Nurturing Center, Retired & Senior Volunteer Program, Samaritan House, Sinopah House, Special Friends Advocacy Program, Summit Independent Living Center and the Violence Free Crisis Line/Abbie Shelter.

Services of the United Way include CASA for Kids, Disaster Care Services, Leaders of Tomorrow and the United Way Volunteer Center.

The United Way also supports the following emergency food and shelter programs in Northwest Montana: Bread Basket, Community Harvest Food Bank, DOVES, Helping Hands, Hot Springs Food Pantry, Lake County Mental Health Center, Libby Food Pantry, Mission Valley Food Pantry, Neighbors in Need, Northwest Montana Veterans Food Pantry, Salvation Army Feeding Program, Thompson Falls Food Pantry and Troy Food Pantry.

Donors may choose how to donate, including cash, payroll deductions, charging to a credit card, direct billing or automatic bank transfers. Donors also may designate which member agencies or non-affiliated partner agencies or the Montana Shares Federation they want to receive their gift.

For more information on the United Way campaign, call 752-7266. Donations may be mailed to P.O. Box 7217, Kalispell, MT 59904.