Longtime volunteer honored at Girls Inc.

LYNN – A passion for reading and a legacy of literacy was celebrated when “Ruth’s Reading Room” was dedicated at Girls Inc. in memory of longtime volunteer and avid reader, Ruth Darling.”I think it’s lovely,” said Nelson Darling, Ruth’s husband. “I think it’s a lovely room, cozy.”Ruth Darling supported many charitable organizations in both Lynn and Boston, but her husband said she volunteered more than 20 years at Girls Inc. as both a board member and literacy volunteer.Girls Inc. Executive Director Deb Ansourlian said one of her first meetings as the new director was with Ruth Darling and her daughter Jeannette McGinn. She said she didn’t remember the meeting details, “but what I do remember is Ruth, her strength and her spirit. Her life is truly an inspiration not only for the girls but for all of us to be strong, smart and bold.”The room has always been a library of sorts, but Ansourlian said the organization got serious about literacy about three years ago. According to statistics, one in six children who struggle with reading in the third grade fail to graduate from high school. Girls Inc. wants to be part of the solution, Ansourlian said.Literacy Coordinator Linda Hall said when she first saw the room three years ago, it had three trash cans against the wall, a couple of long tables down the middle and bookcases filled with a mishmash of books.Today the room is warmed by blue-green walls, a striped rug, a blue couch and tiny, plush red armchairs. Bookshelves line the walls, filled with biographies, books on history, math and science as well as fiction. There are series like “The Boxcar Children,” “Encyclopedia Brown” and “Ramona,” classics like “Little Women,” “Captains Courageous,” and “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” as well newer classics like “Harry Potter.”Ansourlian said under Hall and School-age Child Care Program Director Maria Manzueta, the literacy program is thriving so much so that Girls Inc. International approached the local organization for help in developing its literacy curriculum.”We’re teaching girls that reading is joyful ? when a girl walks in here and picks out a book and reads spontaneously, we’ve done our jobs,” Ansourlian said.”I really love the fact that in this room literacy happens, homework help happens ? all kinds of things happen,” Hall said.Jeannette McGinn said she could picture her mother seated on the blue couch reading to the girls.”Mom loved the buzz of Girls Inc.,” she said.An avid reader who read three newspapers daily – who also loved fiction, poetry, memoirs and quotations – Ruth Darling was known to give books for every occasion, a tradition her granddaughter Lydia McGinn cherished.Lydia, 14, has volunteered at Girls Inc. for three years. She said her grandmother most definitely passed on her love of reading to her as well as “other pieces of her that were permanently tattooed on my heart when I was too young to know what was happening.”She called the idea of dedicating the library in honor of her grandmother perfect, and, along with her mother, she will continue Ruth Darling’s legacy by continuing to volunteer at Girls Inc.”It just feels right,” Ansourlian said. “It’s a wonderful tribute.”