Red-letter volunteer

Maybe it’s because she doesn’t have a TV, but Joyce Justice loves

reading and wants to share her passion with the community.

Justice recently completed training to be a volunteer reading

tutor for the Newport Beach Public Library’s literacy services

program.

“It’s something that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” she

said. “I worked in the food industry for 10 years, and I was totally

amazed in this day and age how many people could not read and what a

stumbling block it was for them.”

For the first time in many years, Justice is not working and has

the free time to be a volunteer, she said. A native of Newport Beach,

Justice moved to Washington, D.C. with her husband, Jim, for a few

years, but they came back in 1977. She’s worked as a high school

history teacher and as an editor for the American Historical Assn.

The library’s literacy program matches adults who want to improve

their reading skills with trained volunteer tutors who help them. The

library’s literacy services coordinator, Diane Moseley, said the

program has about 80 to 100 active volunteers at any given time.

Justice got involved after she noticed a banner at the library

about literacy services.

Somewhat serendipitously, that afternoon she ran into a friend who

was already a volunteer and the two talked about the program.

“I immediately called that day and they had their first meeting

that night,” Justice said. “It was kind of like it was meant to be.”

Justice is a voracious reader of newspapers and history books, and

she said she even reads her husband’s technical journals on astronomy

and physics.

“I’ll read anything,” she said. “It’s very rare that I don’t have

a book in my purse.”

Literacy is important for many reasons, including simple safety

issues such as being able to read a stop sign or a bottle of

medication, Justice said.

It can be very difficult for adults to admit they need help

reading, so tutors who want to help them need to be sensitive to

that, she said.

“Maybe the most important challenge is to understand that you’re

dealing with adults,” she said. “...You’re dealing with trying to

encourage confidence and self-esteem and pride in their learning.”

Justice said she can’t wait to get started tutoring so she can

share the joy of reading.

“There’s just a whole world, to me, that is opened up by the

written word,” Justice said.

She added, laughing, “That’s probably because I don’t have a TV in

my house.”

Anyone interested in becoming a literacy tutor can attend one of

two orientation sessions to be held Jan. 13 at 6:30 p.m. and Jan. 16

at 10 a.m. Both sessions will be at the Newport Beach Public Library,

1000 Avocado Ave. For information call (949) 717-3874.

-- Alicia Robinson