Tully: Improving lives, one word at a time

I wanted to talk to Travis DiNicola on Wednesday afternoon about Indy Reads, the wonderful adult literacy program he runs, and about the group's never-ending struggle to find the volunteers and contributors it needs to do its inspiring work.

It turned out the 46-year-old reading advocate was taking the afternoon off and heading to a midday Indianapolis Indians game. So, as I believe in going where the story is, an hour later I was sitting in a sun-drenched seat on the third-base side of Victory Field, watching the game and chatting with DiNicola about the people his nonprofit serves.

Like the 40-something man who recently flashed a wide smile because, after months of tutoring, he'd finally been able to write his first love letter to his wife. Or the parents DiNicola has met who have overcome a lifetime of illiteracy and are now able to help their children with their homework. Or the group of men who sat around a table back in May doing something they couldn't do before: write sweet notes inside Mother's Day cards.

"This is important work that can have an impact in a real way on people's lives," DiNicola said, between pitches in the third inning. "It's such a huge thing, a life-changing thing for a lot of people."

To back up that point he talked about the adults who come to Indy Reads for the most pragmatic of reasons: So they can balance checkbooks, for instance, allowing them to use banks and not check-cashing joints. Or so they can figure out bus schedules, fill out job applications, handle their prescriptions, understand recipes, or take tests that set them up for promotions at work.

Basic stuff, much of it, but so critical in life.

"We are really focused on the individual students and what they need and want to get out of this," DiNicola said. "A lot of it is the stuff that we just take for granted."

For many, the program is about overcoming lifetime roadblocks such as dyslexia. For others, it's about making up for an education that ended far too soon, childhoods that lacked the support they needed, or maybe mistakes made long ago.

Indy Reads serves, at no cost to the students, people 18 and older. The only requirement is that students sign up voluntarily. Why? Because it requires a commitment, DiNicola said, and it doesn't work if the student is forced to take part and not driven to succeed. Students range in age from 18 to 91 but most are in their 20s and 30s, and the average client comes in reading at a third-grade level.

Volunteers, also age 18 and older, commit to an average of one or two one-hour tutoring sessions a week. Tutors go through about 15 hours of training in Marion, Hendricks or Boone counties. DiNicola said the most important skill successful tutors bring with them is patience. Lots and lots of patience.

"It's really about that more than anything," he said.

Indy Reads has about 500 active volunteers. Most are one-on-one tutors, meeting students just about anywhere in town that works for them, from libraries to coffee shops to the county jail. That's a lot of volunteers. But here's the most important point of this column — a point DiNicola made inning after inning:

Indy Reads needs more volunteers.

As we sat watching shortstop Alen Hanson hit an inside-the-park home run Wednesday (the first I've seen in 41 years of going to baseball games, by the way), DiNicola said roughly 40 men and women were on the Indy Reads waiting list. That's 40 adults who desperately want to improve their lives by better mastering a skill that is fundamental to so much in life. That's 40 people just waiting for someone to act as a partner through an important journey.

If you want to help by tutoring or contributing the organization, which is facing a tough budget year, go to www.indyreads,org for more information. DiNicola insisted you wouldn't regret it. Students leave with an important new skill, he said, but the tutors gain a lot, too. After all, you can't help someone improve their life without feeling pretty darn good about it.

"This is such an important piece of the puzzle," he said, sometime around the sixth inning. "If you can't fill out an application or figure out a bus schedule or read the papers your child's school sends home, then it's very hard to improve your life."

With a lot of effort, and a helping hand, hundreds of people every year are taking important steps toward improving their lives. They're doing it one word and one sentence at a time.

You can reach me at matthew.tully@indystar.com or at Twitter.com/matthewltully.

3 ways you can help Indy Reads

1. Go to www.indyreads.org or call (317) 275-4040 to learn about volunteering.

2. Shop at the Indy Reads Books bookstore, 911 Massachusetts Ave. All profits support the nonprofit reading program.

3. Contribute to Indy Reads at www.indyreads.org/donate or by sending a check to: Indy Reads, 2450 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN 46208