Celebrating 25 Years of Service by Making a 13,000-foot Leap for Literacy

Carrie Scott, Carlsbad City Library staff member and San Diego Council on Literacy board member, will celebrate her 25 years of service in literacy programming by making her first sky dive. Her “Leap for Literacy” will take place on Sunday, Sept. 8, which is also International Literacy Day. The goal is to raise $13,000 to help the San Diego Council on Literacy enhance the availability and quality of literacy services throughout the region.

“I got the idea for Leap for Literacy when I was thinking about how I was going to celebrate my 25th anniversary in literacy,” Scott recently shared.  “I thought back to when I first decided to become a volunteer literacy tutor, and I felt that I didn’t know what I was getting into, but I took the ‘leap’ anyway.  The idea of leaping from an airplane just flowed from that thought!”

The San Diego Council on Literacy is a nonprofit whose mission is to unite the community to support literacy through leadership, advocacy and resources.  There are 27 affiliate literacy programs of the Council that provide free literacy assistance to more than 170,000 adults and children in San Diego County. 

Carlsbad City Library’s literacy program was one of five founding affiliate programs of the Council. The Council supports the city of Carlsbad’s Literacy Services with referrals, professional development, materials, eye care assistance for learners and advocacy. The Carlsbad City Library Learning Center is home to the Literacy Services program, which has provided free tutoring to hundreds of community members since its founding in 1984. The program helps English-speaking adults strengthen basic reading skills, improve spelling and writing, and become more proficient with computers.

When asked what she has learned from her years of dedicated service, Scott replied, “We tend to speak in generalizations about ‘adult literacy learners,’ but every learner has their unique story.  And, as every tutor quickly learns, we learn as much from our students as they learn from us!  I have also learned how vital it is for children to be read to from birth, which is why adult literacy programs, in additional to children’s programs, are so important.”

Donations to Carrie Scott’s Leap for Literacy can be made online at www.youcaring.org/literacyleap. For more information about Literacy Services at Carlsbad City Library, call 760-931-4510 or visit the library’s website.