Literacy Live!

Volunteer Spotlight: Office Volunteers

LCNV is privileged to have the support of three excellent office volunteers who help out the staff with a variety of essential administrative work that directly supports the work that the Literacy Council staff and its instructors do for the students.  In honor of the recent National Volunteer Week, LCNV spotlights them.

Martin Smith, LCNV Volunteer

Martin Smith has volunteered in the LCNV offices for a decade (since 2004), gracing the offices with his stylish hats, while helping out with data entry, filing and other key tasks.  He is a former Smithsonian Institution Librarian who worked for several library branches including the Air and Space Museum Library and the Wolbach Library, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) Library. He learned about LCNV on VolunteerMatch, and the office volunteer opportunity was a good fit for his background.  He found, “It’s a pleasant, great group of people to work alongside….and I’m a creature of habit—I keep very steady hours on the same day every week.”

Lynn Gallagher, LCNV Volunteer

Lynn Gallagher worked on the Agricultural Committee for the House of Representatives for 25 years.  Upon her retirement, she volunteered with the Literacy Council along with a few other organizations.  She started out as a Basic Adult Literacy tutor in 2007, tutoring for six years before stopping last year. When she learned about the need for LCNV office volunteers in, 2009,  she realized that she missed being part of an office setting and signed up to help out in that capacity too.  With so many choices of where to volunteer her time, Lynn enjoys volunteering at LCNV because as she says, “It’s such a pleasant place to be because of the people here. “  As an office volunteer, Lynn helps enter tutor quarterly reports and prepare for upcoming trainings.  She also found that entering the tutoring reports actually gave her good ideas for techniques and resources, especially books that might help her own student.

Sheila Frost, LCNV Volunteer

Sheila Frost recently started volunteering at LCNV in 2013, specifically helping Director of Volunteers, Ruba Marshood Afzal, with key administrative tasks and she also put on her community outreach hat and represented LCNV at the 2013 Gifts That Give Hope Charity Fair. She was formerly trained as a volunteer tutor with the Literacy Council of Montgomery County.  However, she didn’t stay long as a tutor because her husband’s work in the Foreign Service moved them abroad, mostly with assignments in Africa but with one post in Bolivia.  “It was good to see firsthand how other people live but also hard to see and not be able to help,” said Sheila.  “At LCNV, I feel like I’m providing a real service to help the staff, and everyone here is so pleasant and welcoming.  It’s a very nice place to volunteer,” summarized Sheila.

“Our office volunteers brighten up the place and add to Literacy Council being a fun and welcoming place to work. They are essential – as a small non-profit, their dedicated hard work helps us do our jobs and to ensure that our learners are getting the best service. More than that, they are a source of inspiration for all of us on staff. Martin says he has stayed with the LCNV from “habit”, but the caring, attention, and support he and all our office volunteers provide makes all of us want to do our jobs better – for them and for our mission,” added Ruba Marshood Afzal, Director of Volunteers.

Want more information about the variety of volunteer opportunities at LCNV? Please contact Director of Volunteers, Ruba Marshood Afzal, at volunteers@lcnv.org or call 703-237-0866 x111.

Literacy Council of Northern Virginia
2855 Annandale Road
Falls Church, VA 22042
www.lcnv.org