Greetings from behind the closed doors of the Newberry County Literacy Council. Bob Dylan sang about changing times in the 1960s: “There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’, It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls, For the times they are a-changin’.”
The changes in Dylan’s time involved civil rights, Vietnam, the war on poverty, generational conflict, and the use of protest. Today, we face the changes upending our everyday world because of a public health crisis. People are becoming infected and dying at growing rates, businesses have closed or reduced hours, gatherings have been curtailed, people work from home, we are social distancing and isolating from each other. A state-wide ‘stay in place’ order has been issued. But there are still vital needs to be met. The Literacy Council is part of the non-profit sector that must find ways to continue assistance for those in need in bad times such as these.
So, the Literacy Council remains active but in altered fashion. No drop-ins, no book club, no People’s College, no spring road trip. Some vital activities continue. VITA, the tax assistance program, is still running. We have helped over 100 people with their tax returns. Many of these returns have been completed and filed, but others are in various stages of completion. Ms. Barbara Chapman, executive director, explains that many of these people are counting on small refunds to help them survive. Even though the deadline for filing has been extended to July, they need their refunds now, so Barbara and her staff continue to work on them and Barbara drives down to the Cooperative Ministry in Columbia, our partner in the VITA Program, to drop them off. She wants people to know they can continue to get tax assistance, but they need to call for a drop-off time (803-276-8086). I spoke with Ms. Tamiko Beckford of the Cooperative Ministry about this program. She has driven to Newberry, out of necessity, to help Barbara with the more difficult returns and emphasized what Barbara had said, that the tax preparation had to go on, refunds being a life-line for people of limited incomes.
Barbara also keeps abreast of the food program of the Living Hope Foundation, which partners with Harvest Hope in Columbia to provide food pick-up at places in Newberry. Call if you have questions about that. Barbara has also been helping keep the Little Free Library sites stocked with books, while maintaining social distance and disinfecting. These are at Wise Street Park, Grant Homes, Newberry Arms, and the Teacher Education Center at Newberry College. As we monitor our situation in Newberry, this may change. She also has children’s books at the Literacy Office — call for information. Sarah Eargle of the First Steps program donated many of these books and told us about a website that enables children to read books online. That website is: www.wecountkids.org/ebooks. The Literacy Council is offering online tutoring for children. Call if you want to discuss this.
Like all non-profits, the Literacy Council must deal with the realities of life for those we serve. Many do not have internet or computers. Most have phones, but might not text. So, other efforts are necessary to keep in touch, including those that require personal interaction at a time when such interaction can compromise our health. But need does not respect a pandemic.
For example, Barbara and I are trying to keep in touch with members of the Weekly Readers Book Club and the People’s College. We call or text them at least once a week to maintain contact, pass along information, and ask what they are doing. People report that reading, arts and crafts, jigsaw puzzles, and gardening are helping them cope with staying at home and with the distressing news reports that greet us daily. Barbara knocked on the door of one who doesn’t use a computer or text and didn’t answer her phone — she was fine.
We are encouraging the book club members to continue reading the book by Newberry native Dr. Bill Dufford, “My Tour Through the Asylum,” about his work on desegregation of South Carolina schools in the 1960s. This book reminds us that in troubled times, serious people continue to act and that in the face of challenges, some step up. The People’s College, before taking a break, was reading a biography of Dorothy Day, the Catholic activist who established programs for the poor and unemployed during the 1930s and kept at it until she died in 1980. She wanted these people to know they deserved respect and attention, in good times or bad. Non-profits today continue to treat people in this way and this is especially important under trying circumstances when we are focused on ourselves and our needs.
The School system continues to address the need of students to continue studying, issuing instructional packets for pick-up to be returned for review by teachers who communicate with parents by e-mail. Schools are continuing to feed students with pick-up sites where five days worth of breakfasts and lunches are distributed. See the schedule and sites online at the Newberry County School District website or call 803-321-2600.
The Literacy Council also continue to plan for the future, uncertain as the future is. The summer children’s camp must be ready to go if conditions allow. Grants must be written to support programs that, hopefully, will begin in the fall. We had been planning a new writing program that we will be ready to introduce when appropriate. We know other non-profits are doing the same, creating definite plans for an uncertain future. Our hats off to all of them.
Keep reading; it can be a valuable part of keeping us going in stressful times.