Scrabble Fest 2023

Scrabble Fest!

We are pleased to announce that the Letters for Literacy Scrabble Fest will be held on Sunday, April 30, at the High Street Congregational Church in Auburn. Registration is 1:00 p.m. and game play will begin at 1:30p.m.

Timekeeper Jim Handy with the Tiletastics, Ben Redmind, Diane Greene, and Lisa GAlarneau

For those of you that have never participated, this is Scrabble with a twist. Teams of  2 to 4 players, sharing the same letter tray, compete against other teams in three, 30 minute rounds. Depending on their skill level, teams can register in the Social Division (more relaxed play) or the Pro Division, which is highly competitive. Most of the regular rules of Scrabble apply. Requested registration fee is $60 per team.

Players gather pledges on behalf of Literacy Volunteers, and the top fundraisers choose among several fabulous prizes, including the WMTW skybox for a Sea Dogs game. Door prizes d refreshments will also be part of the festivities. WMTW anchor and reporter, Kathleen Jordan, will serve as emcee.

Please check out our website http://literacyvolunteersandro.org/Scrabble-fest for details, registration forms, and the list of prizes and sponsors. We will continue to post new prizes as they come in, so check us out on a weekly basis!

Join us to celebrate the in-person return of this fun-filled event.

Apple Recipes

Below are two recipes using apples from LV-A’s Board Chairperson Sharon Handy and Secretary Judy Vardamis. 

Do you have an apple recipe you’d be willing to share?

We’ll be featuring pumpkin next…so we’d love to receive your favorite pumpkin recipe. 

Send either or both to us at literacy@literacyvolunteersandro.org. We’ll publish them in the newsletter and on our blog.

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Autumn Apple Pie Cocktail

From allrecipes.com
by foraciousgirl

Ingredients

Autumn Apple Pie Cocktail

• 1 fluid ounce vanilla-flavored vodka
• 1 fluid ounce cinnamon whiskey (such as Fireball®)
• ¼ fluid ounce lemon juice
• ice cubes
• ½ cup chilled sparkling apple cider
• 1 dash cardamom bitters

Directions

• Step 1 – Combine vodka, whiskey, and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake.
• Step 2 – Strain mixture into a glass and add cider and bitters; stir. Serve.

Cook’s Notes:

You can make your own vanilla vodka by adding a dash of vanilla extract to regular vodka.

Tips

You can use Angostura^® bitters instead of cardamom, if preferred.

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Raw Apple Cake

Adapted by Judy Vardamis from Marjorie Standish’s Cooking Down East 
Photo by Judy Vardamis.

1 stick margarine
2 cups sugar (or stevia)
2 eggs, unbeaten
4 cups chopped raw apple
1 cup chopped nuts
2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla

 Cream shortening. Add sugar gradually. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour, soda, salt and cinnamon together. Pare and chop apples and add to sugar mixture alternately with sifted dry ingredients. Add chopped nuts. Pour into greased 9-by13-inch pan. Top with a sprinkling of brown sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Serve plain or topped with vanilla ice cream.

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Our Mission

Literacy Volunteers-Androscoggin’s Mission is to provide free one-on-one tutoring and other educational services to help adults and families in Androscoggin County acquire the basic reading, writing, math, and life skills they need to enhance their lives and achieve their personal goals.

Help us Get the Word Out About this Important Resource, Launching on May 12th

We could use your help getting the word out about a new resource through the FCC called the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program. It could be an important resource for those who can’t afford the internet or a computer – especially when almost every service is virtual.

 The temporary benefit will help to lower the cost of broadband service for eligible households during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.

It provides a discount of up to a $50 per month toward broadband service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for qualifying households on qualifying Tribal lands.  The benefit also provides up to a $100 per household discount toward a one-time purchase of a computer, laptop, or tablet if the household contributes more than $10 and less than $50 toward the purchase through a participating broadband provider.

A household is eligible if one member of the household meets at least one of the criteria below: 

• Has an income that is at or below 135% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines or participates in certain assistance programs, such as SNAP, Medicaid or the FCC’s Lifeline program;
• Approved to receive benefits under the free and reduced-price school lunch program or the school breakfast program, including through the USDA Community Eligibility Provision, in the 2019-2020 or 2020-2021 school year;
• Received a Federal Pell Grant during the current award year;
• Experienced a substantial loss of income through job loss or furlough since February 29, 2020 and the household had a total income in 2020 at or below $99,000 for single filers and $198,000 for joint filers; or
• Meets the eligibility criteria for a participating provider’s existing low-income or COVID-19 program.

Emergency Broadband Benefit enrollment will begin (opened) on May 12, 2021. Eligible households can enroll through a participating broadband provider or directly with the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) using an online or mail-in application.  Additional information about the Emergency Broadband Benefit is available at  www.fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit, or by calling 833-511-0311 between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. any day of the week.

Please pass this information along to anyone you think would benefit. Once the funding allocated is spent, the program will end. It’s estimated to be available for about six months. Thank you for your help.

A Student Story – Celebrating the Accomplishments of 2019/2020

June 20, 2020, will mark the 46th Anniversary of Literacy Volunteers-Androscoggin. Normally we would be celebrating together with delicious food and inspiring student speakers. Due to the pandemic, we can’t meet in person this year, but we can still honor the remarkable achievements of our students and tutors.

Every week, Literacy Volunteers will be featuring students who have been nominated for recognition by their tutors. Today, we are honoring Joao Massela, whose accomplishments have been remarkable over the past three years.

Joao Massela

When I met Joao in 2017, he had only been in the United States for three months. While originally from Angola, Joao took English classes and studied the language independently in his home country. His immediate goal was to improve his English conversation skills in order to obtain a job. Long term, he wanted to earn his high school credential and then attend college, with a focus on computer science.

Joao Massela with his LVA tutor Ben Lounsbury

Joao worked extremely hard and pursued his goals with incredible courage and persistence. He passed the HiSet test, obtained two part-time jobs and qualified to attend college at CMCC. He received a $3,000/yr Rockefeller scholarship for two years and earned his Associate’s Degree in Applied Science and Electromechanical Technology. According to his tutor, Ben Lounsbury, Joao was Phi Beta Kappa, graduating with a 3.66 grade point average. This fall, he will attend UMO, also with a scholarship, to earn a degree in electrical engineering.

We celebrate Joao’s accomplishments and Ben’s commitment to helping Joao reach his goals, as we honor all of our tutors for the remarkable work you do on behalf of your students.

— Tahlia Chamberlain, Executive Director, Literacy Volunteers-Androscoggin

 

To learn more about Literacy Volunteers, CLICK HERE.

 

Newsletter Spring 2018

Literacy Volunteers-Androscoggin’s spring newsletter is now available: Click here.

 

 

Games to Help Build Vocabulary

Tutors looking to spice up their lessons have many options. Try adding a few games to the mix! This link gives games that are being used by the blog author who is a third grade teacher. LV trainer and tutor, Suzie Stover, suggests that most of these can be easily converted to use in a one-on-one tutoring situation. She plans on using them with her student. Give them a try and let us know how it goes by leaving a reply on this post or emailing LV-A with your experiences.

We’ll be sharing and discussing building vocabulary with games at the next Sharing What Works lunch time tutor gathering on Friday, February 10, at the Auburn Public Library.

Games to Play With Any Vocabulary

 

Summer Bottle Drive

We’re having a bottle drive this summer!

Are you having a family reunion? A beach party? A backyard barbeque? Afterwards, take the returnables to Roopers on Main Street in Lewiston or Minot Ave. in Auburn and ask the clerk to credit them to Literacy Volunteers-Androscoggin. We’d really appreciate your support. Thanks!

Scrabble Fest 2016 Logo

 

Thanks again to Sylvie St. Amand and her very talented students at Lewiston Regional Technical Center for creating a wonderful set of possible Scrabble Fest “Letters for Literacy” logos for LV-A to choose from.

Our winning designer this year is Rachel Meuse. The program Rachel is enrolled in is the Multimedia Technology program at the Lewiston Regional Technical Center. It offers students an opportunity to earn college credit through a dual enrollment with CMCC. Many of the projects the students work on are school and community based.

Rachel Meuse and her winning graphic Photo by Jaime Gagne

 

 

Seasons of Life

Androscoggin between Auburn and Lewiston
Photo by Elizabeth Scott

Grey clouds above us, what do you hold in store for us? Will it be rain, sleet, or snow? Will we feel the cold wet mist that comes from the slightly icy river? We play near the river bank as we build our snowmen. Months go by and the snowmen begin to melt. Winter breaks for another season.

A new season awakes. The new start of life is waking up. As the last bit of snow melts and goes away, the tips of green grass begin to peep out from the ground. The trees slowly bud with their beauty which shows pure amazement as the birds and bees come our way. Some come from very faraway places.

As more time goes by, summer arrives. More people will enjoy the summer with a picnic. Maybe they will go fishing or cool off by going into the water for a dip. The summer events are very fun, even for the bugs that make one heck of a cloud above your heads, as we sweat. But that ok, because for fall will come and the bugs will be no more.

As fall takes its turn, we are at the end for the four seasons we see beauty in the trees from all the leases are changing to a variety of colors. Many different colors that come to be beings the colorful ground as the leases fall. As the cold chilly air comes and the nights get colder the moon smile at us a bit brighter as the cold put all the living things to sleep we end our four seasons with a new begin.

By Elizabeth Scott, inspired by her husband

Elizabeth Scott and her LV-A tutor Linda Connally

Elizabeth Scott, although she loved school, was rarely able to attend due to an abusive home-life, then a host of moves to various foster homes. When life became more stable and she was finally in a place where she could go to school regularly, she was enrolled in the fifth grade. School was no longer a joy as she struggled with so many gaps in her education. She graduated from high school with minimal reading skills.

Once she became a mom and her son entered the public school system, Elizabeth recognized that she needed to improve her reading skills in order to help her child succeed in school. She connected with a Literacy Volunteers tutor and has been working hard on her education ever since.

Today, Elizabeth is able to help her son with his school work, and she has become a published poet.

Family Literacy Despite Winter’s Worst

Literacy Volunteers-Androscoggin’s KAP (Knowledge As Power) families are doing well and we continue to enjoy crafts. This may be one of our last winter-themed crafts—thank goodness!

The gloves in the picture are thin children’s gloves from Goodwill. They were made into puppets by putting a hand-shaped piece of cardboard—made by tracing the glove itself—into the glove to prevent any bleeding of glue or marker. The decorations included googly eyes, pom-poms, beads, and sequins as well as permanent marker. The puppets can be left on the cardboard hands or taken off and used on the child’s hands. Puppets are a wonderful means of play that encourages language development.

—Sue Reilly, KAP Child Educator