I asked Pat, who has been the coordinator of the literacy program in her area for over 3 years, when she first become interested in literacy. "It was back when I was living in Kingston, Ontario," Pat said rethreading her needle. "I saw an ad to volunteer for literacy work with Frontier College at about the same time that I was spending a lot of time in my daughter Katy's Grade 2 classroom. I saw so many young children who were experiencing difficulties with reading and writing. I was looking for something to do in the community so I decided to volunteer as a tutor.

"I went through 6 weeks of training with Frontier College and tutored an inmate at the Kingston Penitentiary for 9 months. Then we moved here and I was really delighted when this job came up. I'm still volunteering in my kids' classrooms and I'm tutoring a Native child with fetal alcohol syndrome. It still bothers me how many kids in the classroom need extra help."

Kathy and Pat have become good friends with their programs and communities being relatively close together. Kathy took Pat under her wing when she was first getting started and introduced her to the other coordinators in the Southern Region.

"My third day on the job I went to the LCA Conference in Edmonton. I drove up with Kathy and we had a hoot together but I remember having to go around the room telling everyone our names and how long we'd been on the job. I stood up and said 'Hi, my name is Pat Buckland and I've been a literacy coordinator for 2 days!"

"To be thrown into the job and be expected to work without the support from other coordinators would have been awful. My Further Education Council and my Advisory Committee were there to report to but they couldn't really give me the kind of help I needed. I really feel that people who are hired in literacy positions these days have a really good support system to rely on. In the days when I was hired, if you weren't a swimmer before a sinker you would never have survived. I really love the Southwestern Region. We learn a lot from each other and we have a blast together. They're a great bunch."

The room had darkened considerably; the sun was beginning to set behind the mountains. It was hard to tear ourselves away, but we decided to pack up and drive to Pat's house so that she could be there when her 8-year-old son got home from school. It had been a perfect afternoon; I couldn't remember that last time I had spent such a relaxing, peaceful time in such good company.

The Chinese dinner Kathy and I went to that evening was unlike anything I had ever seen or ever eaten. All the members of the Lau family were there, some who spoke English, others who were new to the community and just learning. NORMA and HENRY KOOP, two dedicated tutors who had worked over the years with the Lau family were also guests of honour. It was a wonderful evening.

Driving back to Kathy's home I thought how well-loved she is in her community. Everywhere we went people stopped to talk to Kathy - not just to say hello but to talk. She grew up in this area and knows many of the families in the community but somehow I knew that her relationship with the community stemmed from something more.

When I asked her about it she said with her usual optimism, "I just have a tremendous faith in the strength of love and caring. I really believe that love and caring are the greatest change agents in the world."