DATE: Friday, May 16, 1997                  TAG: 9705160700

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: TEMPERANCEVILLE                   LENGTH:   47 lines

MISS AMERICA PRAISES TYSON'S EDUCATION PLAN

Miss America shook hands with every student in the classroom. Cameras flashed, young men trembled and an electric pride filled the Tyson Foods adult education center.

``Whatever your dream is, I know somebody told you you wouldn't achieve it. They told me I would never be Miss America,'' Tara Dawn Holland said.

``I want you to know that I believe in you, and your dreams can come true.''

Holland visited the Eastern Shore on Thursday to celebrate three milestones in the region's efforts to improve adult literacy:

Tyson Foods in Temperanceville was honored by the Literacy Fair of Virginia for having the best workplace education program in its Tidewater Region.

The Eastern Shore Literacy Council is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

And the council continues to bask in the glory it won last autumn, when the Virginia Literacy Foundation awarded it the Jeannie Baliles Award in Literacy for having the best established program in the state.

``Everywhere I go I talk about literacy,'' Holland told the chicken plant workers. ``We all know that the children are our future. But if we don't focus on the adults, we won't get the children. You're the key.''

On the Eastern Shore, 12,518 adults over 25 don't have a high school diploma. That's nearly one of every four adults in the two counties.

Rhynia Crawley is one of them. The 38-year-old Accomac woman guts chickens for a living but dreams of starting her own business one day - a beauty salon, maybe, or a spa. She knows her financial stability depends on getting her GED.

Three months ago, she started attending the free adult education classes that Tyson has provided its employees since 1993.

Grace and Matt Cormons, sent by Eastern Shore Community College, are the teachers.

Tyson gives employees a $100 bonus for bringing their English and math skills up two grade levels. Seventeen people have won that prize.

The company awards another $100 for anyone who earns a GED. Five employees have won this. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

HUY NGUYEN

The Virginian-Pilot

Miss America Tara Dawn Holland, visiting an adult education

classroom at Tyson Foods in Temperanceville on Thursday, praised the

company's efforts to reduce adult illiteracy.

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