Literacy Organization Honors Locals at Western Springs Fundraiser

When Maria de los Angeles Lopez moved from Mexico to Hodgkins in 2003, for her husband’s work, she found a handicap that was making her life very difficult: she barely spoke any English, and certainly couldn’t write it.

A bus came to the rescue.

Specifically, the School on Wheels, a volunteer program run by the La Grange Park in a mobile classroom: a converted school bus that travels throughout the west Chicago suburbs teaching English as a second language (ESL) to those unable to speak, read and/or write it.

After just two years with School on Wheels, Lopez was able to get a job as a lunchroom aide at a Countryside elementary school—where she later advanced to become a clerical assistant. A year ago, she also became an American citizen.

“The people [of School on Wheels] helped me a lot,” said Lopez in what is now impressive English, adding that the program was willing to go the extra mile for her. “They push you not to skip classes—sometimes I couldn’t go because I didn’t have a car, so I called them and said, “I cannot go today because I do not have a ride,” and they’d say, ‘oh, but the teacher’s ready to go to your house!’ They motivated me.”

For three years now, School on Wheels—rather, School and Tutors on Wheels, since the addition of teaching sites outside the bus—has hosted their flagship fundraiser, “Laugh for Literacy,” at the . Their latest was held Wednesday night, with an expected fundraising goal of $25,000.

At the fundraiser, which featured snacks prepared by St. Joseph’s nuns and by Emilio’s Tapas of Hillside, a silent auction and a huge raffle of items donated by Lyons Township-area businesses and a performance , School and Tutors on Wheels also presented its award for Student Success to Lopez and its Gratitude Award to 14-year volunteer tutor Karen Roche of La Grange.

Roche, formerly an elementary-school teacher and now a perennial volunteer, has also been on the organization’s advisory board for five years. She said that new students are often very uncomfortable, and one of the teachers’ challenges is to establish a connection—after which the students often progress at remarkable rates.

“They’re so thrilled when they learn just anything, where they can repeat something back to you or pronounce the word better—they’re so eager. And that’s what keeps us going,” Roche said. “They’re such hard workers, and they make such an effort to come.”

The highlights for Roche: “Just seeing the response that I get from my students, and the look on their face when they grasp something … the knowledge that they’re there because they want to be there—and when they share stories, like how they can communicate better with their kids’ teachers or a doctor.”

School and Tutors on Wheels has worked with over 2,500 volunteers (who do not necessarily need to be trained educators) to teach English skills (and citizenship test preparation) to over 4,500 students since being founded in 1993, and currently has 850 students in the program from 26 countries.

Director Theresa Denton, of Western Springs, said that the demographics of the west Chicago suburbs are rapidly becoming more multicultural, which can include people who need to learn English and cannot afford a paid class, or even get themselves to one outside their immediate neighborhood (hence the bus-classroom.)

“The Congregation of St. Joseph is really devoted to systemic change, helping people who are underrepresented, etcetera,” Denton said. “What we are really doing is living out the mission of the congregation in the work that we do… It changes [students’] lives dramatically

“Achieving citizenship is a dream of many people. Owning a business is a dream of many people. Just being able to provide for their family, being able to interface with health car—it’s a real challenge if you cannot speak for yourself and find your own voice in English.”

The School on Wheels bus visits locations in Cicero, Hidgkins, Lombard, Summit, Villa Park, Westmont and Woodridge. Tutors on Wheels also teach at three sites in Addison, two in Naperville, and in Bloomingdale, Darien, Warrenville, Wheaton and also Woodridge.