LYNN — The Celebrate Literacy Day Planning Committee announced Monday that the Reading and Educational Assistance for Learning program will receive this year’s Excellence in Literacy Leadership Award at their Aug. 31 Celebrate Literacy night.
Outside the gates of the Lynn Museum Monday evening, REAL program Executive Director and Founder Jan Plourde, REAL English Teacher Raisa Ferreras, and Volunteer Bee Wong posed for a photo with the Celebrate Literacy Day Planning Committee.
Plourde said that since the REAL program, a nonprofit aimed at expanding literacy in Lynn, has applied for the award numerous times, she feels “excited and honored” to finally receive the award.
“This is just a big, big honor for us,” Plourde said. “We’ve been through the application process a number of times prior to being selected.”
Celebrate Literacy Day Planning Committee member Danielle Sonia said that she enjoyed the process of finding, recognizing, and funding nonprofits like REAL that work toward “something bigger than all of us.”
“Being a part of this committee for the last three years has been very special for me. Working together as a team to pick a nonprofit organization within the community that really deserves not only the recognition, but the funding, has been something bigger than all of us, and it’s an honor to be a part of,” Sonia said. “We really put our hearts into searching for an organization that stands out the most … we thought they [REAL] definitely deserved this. What they stand for and what they do is really amazing.”
After the photo, Plourde thanked the Celebrate Literacy Day Planning Committee for all of the time and effort they put into supporting literacy and higher education programs in the neighborhood.
“I want to shout out to these folks, who put in a lot of time and energy to make this happen every year. It shows a lot more than local business people, local civic leaders, they do a lot more in regards to literacy, and without literacy you do not have a successful community,” Plourde said.
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at [email protected].
