By Peggy Sturdivant

For days after emerging from the Literacy Council of Seattle office in the basement of the church on NW 85th I’d think, imagine doing something that makes you feel good every single day. Promoting literacy has always struck me as vital because otherwise so many doors are locked against you.

I discovered the Literacy Council of Seattle because I’d seen a call for book donations, in advance of their June 6th book sale. I realized we have another vital, citywide organization that’s based right here in Ballard. Two part-time paid staff, with the support of Board members and volunteers, run a program that provides free literacy support to nearly 400 clients per year. Their adult clients range in age from late teens to near centenarians, and are from 53 different countries.

But getting back to the annual book sale, as with any reader and book lover I am always simultaneously trying to clear space on my shelves, and fill them.

It happens that another column topic could be about losing my friends to their obsession with the book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” by Marie Kondo. You can tell who has succumbed to the tidy little book by the piles outside of the doors, along with stacks of books to donate. The convergence created a trail for me. Books. Donate. Buy. Literacy. Donate my friend’s books.

Jennifer Collins-Friedrichs was waiting for my knock at the Literary Council of Seattle office door. A longtime educator with a PhD in Literature she was first a volunteer, president of the Board and is now the executive director. The Literary Council of Seattle (LCS) has been in existence since 1968 but like any organization that relies on private donors and individual volunteers it has had to reinvent itself for changing times and changing needs. Many of their students are refugees due to civil wars. They are here not only to seek a better life, but to have a future at all.

A three-year impact fund grant from the Washington Women’s Foundation has allowed LCS to improve its infrastructure, expand their services due to increased and more varied needs, and work to become more sustainable. Which allows them to help more people thrive every day as parents, employees and future citizens.

There’s Rosa who spoke a Zapoteca dialect and only had a second grade education in Mexico. She works hard on learning English so that she can best support her young son. Another client graduated to helping to teach a class and has since been hired by Head Start. There are grandfathers like Boris, and grandmothers who join children here but are incredibly isolated because of language and culture.

Successes and sheer perseverance inspire everyone involved with the Council. Executive Director Collins-Friedrichs and Program Manager Lenore Costello told me about Quedsia, who arrived in the U.S. three years ago from Afghanistan. She spoke four languages but no English. She excels in Math and Science, has been able to bring her mother here, free her brother financially to attend medical school and get her Washington State Driver’s License. (Which native New Yorker Costello doesn’t have.)

The Council trains volunteers, offers classes at public sites throughout the city and provides one-on-one tutoring. During volunteer training the teacher finds a language and alphabet that is completely unfamiliar to all attendees. Imagine trying to navigate life when written characters, spoken words and culture are all unfamiliar. How do the natives work through Seattle’s school choice system? What about accessing ‘The Source’ when you don’t even have a computer? (And relying on your child for information from school?)

With operating expenses under $100,000 per year LCS still managers to offer 13 classes all across the city and one-on-one tutoring for eighty clients. Now wonder they received Seattle Met’s award “Doing the most with the least.”

So what does LCS need so that its Ballard neighbors can (at least) vicariously do some Seattle-wide good every day? They need more daytime volunteers, and always appreciate those able to help students studying for careers in nursing and heath care. They can put every private donation to direct use.

They also need those books that people are “tidying” out of their homes, in decent condition, of current interest and not textbooks or magazine. They encourage donations of children’s and YA books because so many teachers can fill their classroom shelves through the book sale. The books raise money for the Council, and therefore help the adults who may be our taxi drivers and healthcare aides now, but could soon be our nurses, doctors and engineers.

Literacy Council of Seattle. www.literacyseattle.org Book drop-off is at 8500 14th Ave NW (rear) or call for pick-up 206.233.9720. Used Book Sale on June 6th 10-4 p.m. (9 am early bird: $10 fee).