Student Spotlight: Lenny

Lenny, 81 years old, came to us for reading help after his wife went to live in a nursing home. Now that his wife is not around anymore to read for him, he realizes he needs to learn to read better to live independently.  Lenny is now working one-on-one with an LNRV volunteer tutor to learn new literacy skills to achieve goals such as being able write a note on a card, read his mail, pay his bills/write checks, fill out forms, and write down a phone message.

Lenny has had a long and successful career and has been an active community volunteer despite his difficulty with reading.   "It's been a secret," he said.  “I always had to turn down leadership positions at work because I couldn’t do the reading.”  Now retired from his career in manufacturing, he got by his whole life without anyone knowing about his struggle with sounding out words by memorizing sight words, using context to guess, and taking forms home for his wife to complete on his behalf. 

Lenny’s father did not read at all and Lenny and all of his siblings struggled with reading. 

He stopped attending school when his failing grades caused him to become ineligible to play sports. 

“You’re never too old to learn,” said Lenny. 

We agree!  Way to go, Lenny! You inspire us all to try hard things at any age!