Marena pulled up a chair beside me as she talked about the frustrations she was feeling about the painful situations some of her students were dealing with. She was non-judgmental as she spoke, expressing genuine concern and consideration for their circumstances. She was hoping Toni was still in the trailer; she wanted her advice. She and Toni always discuss how a problem should be handled.

"We really try to have a team approach," Marena explained. "We want to give the students the best support possible, academically and personally. That's really hard to do sometimes. We know we're not counsellors but we find that the personal problems the students have, can really affect the work they do in the classroom. When a student drops out, it's usually because of a personal problem that has become too overwhelming. We try to help them stick with it."

Leana came back from picking up the mail in the main campus building, tossed the mail on her desk in the back office then joined us in the coffee area. Marena and Leana are such good friends that I was surprised when I learned that they are actually sisters. They have worked together in the trailer for a number of years, adding a reality to the family feeling the trailer ladies bring to their work. We talked together about the day's events, made plans for the morning, then decided to call it a day.

We stopped in at the trailer at 8:30 the next morning. I was immediately drawn into the energy of the trailer ladies as they prepared themselves for a new day. A student came in looking for a book he had lost and right away someone gave him a hand, teasing him about being absent-minded. Marena was going to pick up some photocopying at the main building and asked if she could pick up anything for anyone else while she was there. The activity was wonderfully chaotic but still productive.

My first interview that morning was with HELEN APPLETON, a beautiful, silver-haired woman who is coordinating the One Voice Literacy Program, an one-to-one tutoring program for seniors. Helen is a recently widowed, retired teacher who had been a tutor with the ABLE Program at Medicine Hat College. She had become interested in a needs assessment focusing on illiteracy and the older learner that was being conducted through the College. Later, she accepted the challenge of piloting this innovative new project.

Helen and I sat at the back of the trailer for an hour, talking about seniors and the challenges of teaching older adults to read. Helen explained why the seniors population is being ignored. "The attitude of the public indicates that there is no point in educating these people now. They say, They only have a few years to live, why invest all this money on them?'"

It is Helen's very firm belief that "it is a right for everyone to be able to learn to read and write. It doesn't matter if there are only 2 years left in one's life span, or 5 years, or 10 years. Those 2, 5 or 10 years spent in the companionship with a tutor trying to help them read are going to be more productive and pleasant. People are going to feel better about themselves and it's going to improve their quality of life."

Helen has discovered that not only is it difficult to convince younger people of the need for literacy training for seniors, it is sometimes difficult to convince the seniors themselves. There are a number of stumbling blocks. 'The students have no self-esteem whatsoever. They think 'Oh, I know I'm dumb' and I have to say, 'No, you're not dumb.' Some of the students are pretty discouraged with life."