SOUTH HOLLAND, IL –(ENEWSPF)—June 3, 2013. Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White and the Illinois Press Association have announced Tennie Fitts, a student of the Adult Volunteer Literacy Program at South Suburban College, as a winner of the annual Spotlight on Achievement and Spotlight on Service (SOS) Awards.
In receiving a Spotlight on Achievement Award, Ms. Fitts demonstrated tremendous dedication to improving her literacy and life skills. Several years ago, Fitts suffered a brain aneurysm. She has long since recovered physically, but she has not recovered her previous reading ability. This brain aneurysm took her to a basic literacy level, greatly limiting her ability to do basic math, read, and write.
Due to her perseverance and the tremendous time and effort of her tutor, Mary Gercken, Fitts has excelled. One problem was that as she became older, the text of recipes in cookbooks became too small for her to read. She mentioned which recipes were among her favorites, and her tutor spent time retyping and printing those favorites in a larger, darker font. They then spent a session or two reading through the recipes so that she could become familiar with them once again. On their first Christmas together, Fitts and Gercken baked cookies, carefully following the printed recipe.
Ms. Fitts is a patient learner, and she considers nothing beneath her. She and her tutor spent hours reading simple phonetic children’s books from the Dick and Jane series, books of Dr. Seuss, and books from the Curious George series. This has greatly increased her literacy level. Due to her hard work she is now able to balance her own checkbook.
Fitts has been working for several years as a shelf stocker at a large retail establishment. She became familiar with the items to be stocked in her aisle through rote memorization. Fitts, like others who have difficulty reading, is well versed in ways to get by. Before she was receiving tutoring she only managed one aisle. Now, through her hard work in tutoring sessions she has progressed enough in reading to manage several aisles in the store.
“The amazing progress Tennie Fitts has made is the reason why she was nominated for and received the 2013 SOS Spotlight on Achievement Award,” said Chris McElroy, coordinator of the Adult Volunteer Literacy Program. “She is one of just ten who were selected out of a possible 19,000 adult learners in Illinois. Her dedication and accomplishments are truly inspiring.”
SSC is located at 15800 South State Street, South Holland, Illinois.
