Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 19, 1991                   TAG: 9102190084
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

READ-A-THON LETS READERS HELP ILLITERATE

But when an adult can't read a job application or even fill out a check, who does he ask for help?

There are thousands of illiterate adults living in the New River Valley who have this problem.

Literacy Volunteers of America is trying to help.

For the fourth year, LVA is holding its annual Read-A-Thon fund-raising at all public branch libraries in the New River Valley.

The Read-A-Thon will be held Saturday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Prizes will be awarded in youth and adult categories for the three highest fund raisers. There will also be a random drawing of prizes for all readers.

Persons wanting to read in the Read-A-Thon can go to the nearest public library and pick up sponsor forms. The form includes a space where pledges are made to the readers for each minute or hour they read.

The readers may read silently for as long as four hours while being monitored by LVA volunteers. When the Read-A-Thon is over, the readers will collect money from their sponsors and it will be donated to LVA.

Lorene Jones, Read-A-Thon spokeswoman, said the first Read-A-Thon raised $4,000. This year the goal is $6,500. This is the only big fund-raiser the LVA holds in the New River Valley, and pledges from the Read-A-Thon will account for almost 15 percent of the agency's budget.

The monies raised from the Read-A-Thon will be used in a variety of ways. One of those is to provide free one-on-one tutoring for individuals who wish to improve their reading or writing skills.

Nancy Morehouse, a pediatrician from Radford, has been an LVA tutor for 2 1/2 years. She says the problem isn't that the adult learners aren't bright, but that they get caught up in their everyday routines.

"They are just limited," she said, because they have full-time jobs, children to raise and have to make a living. They don't always have the time to learn.

"Adult learners can learn faster than children because they are more focused. They can make more progress, and draw on life experiences," she said.

One of her students is "just brilliant," Morehouse said.

"This man thought he wasn't able to read at all. But after a short time, we saw that he was above a fourth-grade reading level," she said. "He can read a whole manual just by context."

Morehouse said her student has two jobs and a business on the side, so he doesn't have much time for tutoring.

"Many of the adult learners can only work on their skills one day a week," she added.

LVA volunteers must take a 25-hour training course to teach adult learners.

For more information on the Read-A-Thon or becoming a tutor, call Literacy Volunteers at 382-7262.