August 14, 2016

Cañon Literacy Center has provided more than 3,150 hours of free tutoring

By Sara Knuth
The Daily Record

Eileen Lakey loves the buzz that fills up the room when young readers go over words with their tutors.

“I love just sitting here listening. I just close my eyes,” she said. “It’s just this wonderful hum going on, and it’s learning, and I love it.”

As the director of the Cañon Literacy Center, a nonprofit that provides free tutoring in reading and writing, she hears that buzz a few days out of every week.

In a fellowship hall located next to the First United Methodist Church in Cañon City, local students who struggle with reading and writing come to the center and pair up with a tutor, one-on-one.

On Tuesday afternoon, in the first of two sessions, students periodically came up to Lakey to read her a poem, a teaching method that’s just a small, but crucial, part of the program.

“We do as much mentoring as we do tutoring, we really do,” Lakey said, later adding the center teaches phonics, comprehension, vocabulary, fluency and writing through a program called the Peak Reader Program.

Owen Lyon, a local student, said in his time at the center, he’s learned to like reading poems.

Sam Savage, a community member who tutors Samantha Taylor, another student, said he struggled with reading as a young student, but got better after spending one week out of every summer with his grandmother, a librarian.

“To me, it’s just so important to like to read,” he said, adding that working with children allows him to help them enjoy reading.

The center was started in 2008, when the First United Methodist Church sent out a survey to parishioners, asking them what they could be doing for the community as a centrally located church.

“The votes came back, almost unanimous: something for kids,” Lakey said.

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