Share a favorite moment or experience from your time volunteering with 826 Valencia.
My favorite experience was working with students at Balboa High on their autoethnographies. Each of the five seniors I supported wrote moving, expressive, wonderful essays. I was deeply impressed. At the end, they presented me with a thank you card with a short message and signature in longhand from each of them. It was a highly satisfying tutoring experience for me.
What inspired you to join our community?
I had heard about 826 Valencia from local media and from friends. I like writing, and I’m a good writer. I also like working with young people. (I’m a retired lawyer but might have liked—just maybe—to have been a high school teacher.) I’m a fourth-generation San Franciscan, so I like working in San Francisco neighborhoods and communities, and 826 gives me that opportunity. I’ve always thought that when I retired I would find a way to do some tutoring, so when I learned about 826, I wanted to participate.
What hobbies do you enjoy when you’re not volunteering at 826 Valencia?
I’m an inveterate reader, both fiction and non-fiction. I read at least two or three books, and often more, every month. I belong to a book group, and we have great discussions about the books we’ve chosen to read.
Any advice for new 826 Valencia volunteers?
Relax, have fun, and enjoy the tutoring experience. Enjoy meeting, getting to know, and working with the students—they’re great.
If you could transform into any literary creature for a day (dragon, unicorn, traveling pufferfish, etc.), what would it be and why?
I would be a Hogwarts (Harry Potter) owl. They’re intelligent, knowledgeable, reliable, and discreet. They can and do fly all over. They deliver mail and messages.