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 May 1st marked a new day at Literacy Volunteers of Roanoke Valley. Executive Director, Nancy Chapin, has relinquished her position. Current Board Member and Basic Literacy tutor, Annette Loschert, has taken over the reins. Although we will all greatly miss Nancy’s leadership in the program, Annette’s years of experience as a volunteer board member and as a tutor will help ease this transition. Nancy herself will also help to make this transition a very fluid one, staying on part-time through June to assist Annette in her first weeks in this very challenging position.
Literacy Volunteers exists as it does today because of the heroic efforts of Nancy Chapin. Her dedication, selflessness, and drive fueled a renaissance in this program, creating educational opportunities for adult learners that would not have been available in the Roanoke Valley without her. Nancy came to Literacy Volunteers in 1995 as a tutor. She quickly proved herself to be an outstanding volunteer, becoming an effective tutor and providing intellectual and muscle power to the program for a variety of activities, e.g., coordinating and producing the annual publication of student writing and assisting in special events. Behind the scenes, Literacy Volunteers was unraveling financially. Paid staff evaporated as funding became almost nil. Along with fellow volunteer, Jodi Miskowiec, Nancy pitched in to keep the program running. The grim financial picture did not make this task easy. Nancy and Jodi struggled to keep things going while they energized the board of directors to become more active in fundraising. Nancy’s energy, commitment, and volunteer efforts paid off, helping create a turnaround.
Soon funding became available to hire a new executive director, and Jodi Miskowiec, then board president, recruited Nancy for the job, knowing that she had the strength, commitment, vision, and organizational ability to continue the program turnaround. The board started to provide the money, but they needed Nancy to provide the womanpower. Fortunately, she did. This acceptance began an amazing resurgence for the program. Working at first to simply keep her nose above water, doing learner intakes and assessments, training and supporting tutors, keeping records, acquiring computers, developing a database to assure efficient and accurate reporting, organizing board activities, special events, and fundraisers, writing grant proposals, etc., Nancy forged ahead, using renewed and new resources to not only rebuild and strengthen but to create new possibilities.
Since she first volunteered in 1995, Nancy has worked as a volunteer with nearly forty students both individually on basic literacy and ESOL and in small groups on basic numeracy, logging in nearly 500 instructional hours as a volunteer. Since she became the executive director in 1996, she has trained well over 200 volunteer tutors in both Basic Literacy and English for Speakers of Other Languages. Many of those tutors are still active in the program today and remember the strong support that Nancy had given them when she worked “part-time” to do what a staff of three do today. Nancy’s vision and determination have also translated themselves into financial support through her grant writing, fundraising, and her work with a re-energized board of directors to help the program grow to better serve learners and volunteers.
As she transfused new life into Literacy Volunteers, Nancy reached out to the community and began to make friends and contacts throughout the state, becoming an active participant in state-wide adult education and literacy organizations. She has taken the program from ground zero to an organization that serves more and more adult learners each year and serves them better. In 1998, Nancy joined the National Institute for Literacy’s Learning Disabilities Training and Dissemination Project, becoming one of the seven trial programs in Virginia and leading to program enhancements to better serve adults with disabilities and to better train tutors to work with these individuals. Since late 1999, Nancy has hired and trained full-time staff to provide training, support, and program improvements to expand her vision. Literacy Volunteers serves more learners now than ever before.
In late 2000, Nancy secured a grant from Landmark Communications for $75,000 in matching funds, which has allowed for an expansion of the program beyond human resources, making computers and instructional software available to learners who would otherwise be waiting without assistance for tutors. In 2001, Nancy led our local organization through LVA National’s accreditation process, documenting and fine-tuning the program to demonstrate how easily it met these national accreditation standards. Also in 2001, the Virginia Literacy Foundation accepted her grant proposal for their program improvement grants, funding a strategic planning project to continue program advancement well into the future. In 2002, she secured a $29,000 Department of Education grant for further program development in English Literacy/Civics. Since then she has trained a part-time staff member to initiate this program, and so for, this new program’s success has been great, allowing Literacy Volunteers to serve even more learners.
Nancy has been a very active force for adult literacy in Virginia. For example, she is currently the Virginia Literacy Leadership Committee President. Nancy had been a long-time member of the VLLC, so when they needed a president, she was the obvious choice. Last year, she led a group of members to Richmond to fight against proposed budget cuts for the Office of Adult Education and Literacy, helping to turn around a fairly drastic funding situation. Along with the above VLLC affiliation, she has also been president and treasurer of the Literacy Fair of Virginia as well as a board member. She worked as the Literacy Support Center Coordinator for the southwest region and also designed a survey that gave the Virginia Adult Education Resource Center and the Virginia Literacy Foundation a much needed description of every literacy organization in the state. She completed the Workforce Improvement Network’s Curriculum Development Training Program, teaching a ten-week employee math class for a local manufacturer. The above contributions at the state level demonstrate her strength, stamina, and determination, showing extraordinary effort for a cause she wholeheartedly believes in.
After years of tireless effort, Nancy has decided to take a well-deserved rest although those who know her well find it hard to image that she’ll be idle for long. In fact, Nancy will continue to be a part of Literacy Volunteers, remaining in the role that brought her to the program – being a volunteer tutor. While her role will change, her spirit and example will always be a part of Literacy Volunteers of Roanoke Valley.
As Nancy’s efforts and accomplishments created a very successful program, they also created a daunting challenge for the board of directors – how to replace her. Miraculously, the perfect replacement became immediately apparent. Having entered the program as a tutor in 1998 and becoming a board member in 1999, Annette Loschert has been a vital and integral part of Literacy Volunteers of Roanoke Valley’s growth and success. Her commitment to and experience in the program will make this transition nearly seamless. We are fortunate indeed to have one of our own pick up the standard to lead us into the future.
Annette reluctantly leaves her position as Director of Lay Ministry at Trinity Ecumenical Parish in Moneta to take on this new challenge. Having served in the position for four years, Annette has gained a great deal of experience in volunteer management, particularly training and development. She sees her emphasis on a team-based approach to program management as fitting in nicely at Literacy Volunteers.
When offered the position of executive director, Annette says she accepted for one reason – her work over the years with an adult learner. She strongly believes in the mission of Literacy Volunteers because she has seen first hand the impact that improved literacy can have on an individual’s life. She knows full well the rewards for both tutors and learners who participate in this collaborative partnership. Her work as a volunteer has been exemplary
In 2000, Annette received the Tutor of the Year Award. In his nomination, her learner wrote: “Without Annette’s great help, I would not feel the way I do about myself. She has helped me in so many ways. It’s hard to describe what a wonderful person Mrs. Loschert is. That’s why I would like to nominate her as tutor of the year, to show her how much she means to me.” Annette was the obvious choice for the award that year, and she has continued to work with her learner through the last several years, helping him make even greater achievements, demonstrating how volunteer efforts can truly make a difference in people’s lives.
Literacy Volunteers of Roanoke Valley is fortunate indeed to have these two fine ladies – Nancy Chapin and Annette Loschert – as past and present executive directors.
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