The next morning I went back to The Reading Network to talk to CAROL PARSONS who is usually the first person people meet when they come up the stairs to the program offices. She has a busy job at The Reading Network performing the combined roles of tutor monitor and assistant to the program coordinator. Carol had been working hard preparing for a Tutor Appreciation Night that was held the night before. When we sat down I asked Carol how the evening had gone.

"This is when I get most frustrated," Carol sighed. "Even after all this time there are still people at the College who don't understand what we're doing here. Last night when I introduced one of the members of the Board of Governors to Gerry, one of our students, he right away asked Gerry, 'So how long have you been in this country?' Gerry was born and raised in Western Canada and has no outward signs of being from another country and yet it was assumed that if he is in a literacy program, then he must be a 'foreigner' ."

But Carol was also positive about the things that have changed. "When I started here there was nothing. We had to scrounge for supplies because we had no budget. I had to bring paper and pencils in from home because there was nothing. There was only one office and not enough room for everything. We have worked hard to find more funding and now we are running a number of good programs all under one roof. There is a lot of good work being done here."

Carol talked about teamwork and I was reminded again of the "trailer ladies" in Medicine Hat. "Wenda and all the tutors and instructors are involved in all the programs. I never feel alone with a problem. We have students here of all different levels - some need help with social skills, some with their confidence in speaking English and others with their ability to write a letter. We recognize that each student is an individual but we also try to treat everyone as an equal, whether they are handicapped, from another country or a single parent on social assistance. We try to make people feel welcome when they come to The Reading Network. We're all just people working together for something we all believe in."

As the tutor monitor it is Carol's responsibility to keep in touch with the tutors who are matched with students. One incident that happened a while ago taught Carol that in all our efforts to provide support to the students, we sometimes forget about the needs of our volunteer tutors. "One day, one of the tutors came to my office and closed the door. He sat down and started to cry. I was shocked and surprised; I didn't know what to do. He told me that he had been to Edmonton for tests and that his doctor had just told him that he had a serious debilitating disease. He calmed down after a while and we talked for a long time. He really just needed someone to listen to him. He was from Ontario and didn't have many friends in Grande Prairie."

"I encouraged him to try and get more information about his illness. And because he had told me he was quite involved in his church, I suggested that he make an appointment to talk to his minister. That was of some help but he found he was no longer able to carry on with the forestry work he had been doing so he eventually returned to Ontario. He told me he was thinking of going back to school there but I didn't hear from him after he left Grande Prairie."