If you’re reading this article, consider yourself lucky. There are an untold number of Limestone County adults and children who either can’t read or who aren’t proficient readers.

Over the past 30 years, the Learn to Read Council in Athens has helped hundreds of people improve their literacy or math skills. Today, the agency celebrates the milestone with an ice cream social and the public is invited to attend.

The celebration is set to run from noon to 4 p.m. at the Revival Building, across from the First Presbyterian Church on Washington Street. Ice cream will be provided by Kreme Delite. It is open to the public.

Rhonda Andrews, executive director of Learn to Read, hasn’t been with the organization for all 30 years, but she has been there for 25. The organization was founded in 1987 by Mabel Prince. Learn to Read renamed its tutoring room the Mabel Prince Tutoring Room in 2014.

“We’ve really grown since then,” Andrews said. “We keep evolving into different things.”

At first, Learn to Read catered to primarily illiterate adults. Most of its efforts have now shifted to after-school tutoring and summer literacy programs. There are also significantly more English-as-a-second-language students than there were 30 years ago.

The numbers tell the story — 460 of what Andrews call “basic students” and at least 654 English-as-a-second-language, or ESL, students have been served. There have also been more than 450 students who have received after-school tutoring services.

“We’re really for people who struggle with their reading or want to learn to read at a higher level,” Andrews said. “They may be reading at a third-grade or fourth-grade level and want to improve or they may just have comprehension problems.”

Over the past year, 31 of those served were 16 to 18 years old, while 48 were between the ages of 25 and 44. There were 84 people served who had less than a 12th-grade education, while 15 had a high school diploma.

New challenges

When asked about modern-day challenges for a literacy program, Andrews said technology isn’t necessarily an impediment to literacy. She explained even clients who aren’t proficient readers use social media.

A success story she referenced was a man who had a job but needed to fill out a form on a computer for work. She recalls abandoning her lesson for the day and instead taught the client how to fill out the form.

“After that, he was more confident about using computers for work,” she said.

Funding can also be a challenge, but Andrews praised philanthropic organizations who have provided grants like the Dollar General, Dekko and Daniel foundations. She’s also appreciative of private donations, annual appropriations from the Athens City Council, Limestone County Commission and the agency’s partnership with the United Way of Athens-Limestone.

Andrews hopes today’s event will be well-attended by people who want to learn more about the organization and the services it provides. She said word-of-mouth is still her agency’s best form of advertising.

“We’d like to talk to them and let them know we need tutors and students,” she said. “If people need us, chances are they’re not going to read about us in the paper.”

For more information on the Learn to Read Council, click here.