History

    The Grand Traverse Area Literacy Council (GTALC) was started in November of 1970 by a small group of women under the sponsorship of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Traverse City.  Thirteen volunteers completed the first Laubach Training Course under the tutelage of Florence Mason.  These first training sessions were made possible by a Staff Development Grant through the Michigan Department of Education.  The Council was organized to address the problem of illiteracy in our five county area and formally incorporated in 1971.  The Council realized the need to seek IRS 501(c)(3) status as a not-for-profit charitable organization, which it subsequently obtained.

    During the next few years membership waxed and waned.  Dorothy Kellogg, one of the tutors from the second group of trainees, assumed the role as chairperson, and operated the Council out of her basement.  Eloise Doolittle, the Council librarian, stored teaching guides, workbooks, readers, and records in the trunk of her car.  In 1975, then Vice-President of the Council at that time, Frances Rajkovich, returned home one evening to find all the Council's records and business papers stuffed between her front door and the outer screen door with a desperate message from the President: "I've been transferred.  Here . . . please take over!"

    Frances had just been appointed Director of the Probate Court Volunteer Services by the Honorable Kenneth Mackness, Probate Judge of Grand Traverse County.  Realizing the necessity and urgency of a mailing address and phone number for the Council, she sent a brief memo to the Judge asking for approval to support the Council.  His reply to her was a simple one: "Give the Literacy Council all the help you can."

    And so, through the generosity of Judge Mackness, the Grand Traverse Area Literacy Council formed an affiliation with the Grand Traverse Probate Court Volunteer Services which continues to this day.

    Today the Literacy Council places volunteers in a variety of programs and settings.  These include: Adult Basic English (ABE), Michigan Works! Service Center Learning Lab, English as a Second Language (ESL), as well as tutoring for Dyslexic learners, and Foreign Exchange students, and much more..  The Literacy Council also provides tutors for the Learning Partners Program, sponsored by the Probate Court Volunteer Services, for at-risk area children in the elementary grades.  

    For 37 years our mission remains a simple one to fight illiteracy in the Grand Traverse Area through the generous efforts of volunteers who donate their time and skills.