David was coordinating the program in Red Deer when I was getting the literacy program off the ground in Camrose. My phone bill was full of calls to David; he was another terrific resource for me and never seemed to tire of my questions. When I visited David's program a number of years ago it was housed in the Provincial Building in Red Deer. I asked him when chat move came about. "Joanne had moved the literacy program from the basement of the public library to the old Provincial Building shortly before I was hired," David explained, helping to put the last of the puzzle pieces together. "The building had been the Treasury Branch then the Liquor Store and at one time, the old Social Services office. The provincial government owned the building but they let us use the space."

"When I came along, the Tutor Bank (volunteer tutors) was on the main floor and the ESL classes were held upstairs. We had three full-time literacy (ABE) classes chat were still being held in the basement of Gaetz United Church. The washrooms were downstairs and the photocopier was upstairs. A secretary hadn't been hired yet so there was a lot of 'answer your own phone, make your own photocopies, do your own typing.'"

"There had been a lapse of time between when Joanne left and I was hired so volunteers like Sylvia Brown kept the ball rolling. Sylvia was really invaluable to me bringing forward all the history and helping me to understand how the program worked."

"We were in the old Provincial Building for a year and a half then moved to South School. Don Snow became our administrator at that time. He was the first ray of light that we'd seen from Red Deer College administration. He took time to understand what we were doing in the program and what some of our difficulties were. He used whatever resources he could lay his hands on to build some firm foundations for the program."

"He helped to bring us all together at South School so we no longer had teachers upstairs and the secretary downstairs and three classes over in some church basement. That was a tremendous feeling for everyone. Even though the renovation process was messy and noisy it felt like a big celebration of 'Gee, we finally have a home: Part of Don's good administration was leading people in a way that made them feel good about themselves. He really strengthened the program by expressing his belief in the people in the program."

I pointed out to David that I had witnessed a similar leadership style in his own work with the literacy program. He disagreed with me somewhat but did admit that he had been deeply committed to the program. "I really believed that the program was important and worthwhile. Maybe that rubbed off. I had a profound respect for the volunteers; they were so damn dedicated. A lot of the tutoring situations were a really tough grind. It wasn't easy for tutors to keep coming back when they saw fairly limited progress. Even though they weren't so sure sometimes they really made a difference."

"They taught me how important the affective component of learning is. If somebody feels listened to and cared about and if genuine attention is being paid to them, they will engage in learning things. That's what brought the students back when they had previously written school or any kind of academic learning off as a lost cause or something they didn't think they could do. They felt like a person in their relationship with the volunteer tutor and that hooked them in in a big way."