Gift of reading: Literacy Society in Gravenhurst changing lives

Tutor Troy Hayden is seen with 83-year-old Jack Peever, who just read his first novel. (Katherine Ward / CTV Barrie)

The ability to read is something most of us take for granted.

For adults who don't know how, however, life can be challenging and even embarrassing. That's why in a small room in Gravenhurst, a dedicated group of volunteers have been on a mission to change lives.

And one word at a time, they're having great success and proving it's never too late to overcome an obstacle.

Words on a page used to be a mystery for Jack Peever.

“I stopped going to school in Grade 6 and haven't been back to school since,” the Gravenhurst man says.

Now 83, Peever has just learned how to read.

“Your brain starts working,” he says. “You start thinking, you know what I mean? And you feel as though you are in the world.”

That world opened up for Peever when he saw a sign for adult learning outside the Literacy Society building in Gravenhurst. He’d worked his whole life as a handy man at the University of Toronto, but that success stopped being satisfying.

“He was having a hard time talking to people when I first met him,” says Peever’s tutor Troy Hayden. “And he didn't think he was smart enough to talk to people.”

Peever’s story isn’t unique.

“In the full-time population that lives in south Muskoka, probably 20 to 30 per cent of the people do not have university, do not have high school graduation, do not have a certificate of any kind,” says Literacy Society of South Muskoka program manager Eric Potts.

But people at the Literacy Society in Gravenhurst are hoping to change that. Here people who need help learning to read, write, or even use computers can get one-on-one tutoring. And it is open to anyone. Getting these skills is what many people need to get a job, or to go further in school.

“We try to get them to the point where they feel good not just about themselves but about their reading skills and their ability to manage their own lives and get a career that has some meaning to them,” Potts says.

Learners create goals, and the Literacy Society can tailor programs to help them meet that goal. Angel Cocomazzi didn't get through high school as a teenager, but she just got accepted into college because of the help she's received.

Going to college is something she’s tried to achieve in the past, but couldn’t succeed at because of literacy.

“Now I'm moving forward,” she says. “It's like a chance at new life.”

She starts college in January. It’s not just literacy on the curriculum in Gravenhurst. Before coming here, Lisa Solyom didn't know how to use a computer.

“I wanted to see the world, so I left school early,” she says. Now she's seeing the world in a whole new way.

Peever is exploring new worlds too. He read his first novel ever this year.

“Anyone who thinks they are too old to learn, no, you can learn anytime you want to,” he says.

What most people don't realize is that the programs offered by the Literacy Society are free. And the society is hoping to get more tutors, so they can help even more people.