You can’t give hours of your time without a passion for the cause.
You won’t give hours of your time without a real belief you are making a difference.
When not meeting deadlines, I volunteer my time with the International Dyslexia Association. Dyslexia is a learning difference that makes it difficult to learn to read, but there are ways to help. I know, because my own children struggled to read until they received proper instruction.
IDA-GA is a non-profit organization run entirely by volunteers. Many are educators who know that 15 to 20 percent of the population has some form of dyslexia. Others are education-focused psychologists, pediatricians or parents, like myself, who know that with effective instruction all children can have the opportunity to learn to read.
One of our volunteers, Kim Sergent, joined us this year. She is the parent of two delightful children. Her intelligent, curious and simply adorable 9-year old daughter, Sofia, was diagnosed as dyslexic two years ago.
Like myself, Kim was caught completely off guard, “When she was first diagnosed, I didn’t know anything about dyslexia. I didn’t know where to turn.”
A simple online search led her to IDA-GA where she read every page.
“The information helped to confirm what I was being told by Sofia’s teachers and to reassure me she would be O.K. with the right instruction,” she said.
That prompted her to give her time to help other parents find needed information and feel the support of an organization fighting to help their children.
Kim and Sofia, along with her husband and son, were on hand earlier this month as IDA-GA conducted the Dyslexia Dash, a 5K Run/Walk designed to raise awareness about dyslexia and raise funds to provide teacher training and community outreach efforts.
The planning for an event like this, that attracted more than 1,200 runners, takes a full year. Everything from securing the location and obtaining permits, to engaging sponsors and promoting the event, is all done by volunteers.
Each volunteer who shows up at 6:30 a.m. on race day does so because they care deeply about the organization’s mission to provide evidence-based research, best practices and information and support about dyslexia that can change the lives of families.
This year’s Dyslexia Dash raised close to $30,000.
In the past 12 months, IDA-GA has contributed $12,000 to local grass-roots non-profit REAP who is providing Structured Literacy training to public school teachers. It has also funded hundreds of full and partial scholarships for teachers to attend professional development training, and more than 35 free community outreach meetings.
We’ve also helped hundreds of parents find qualified psychologists and tutors.
In our case, the passion of volunteers simply means training and information that can mean the difference between a child moving forward and one who falls behind in the classroom.
Information: www.idaga.org.
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