Faces of Courage: Sioux Falls Book ‘Journey to Literacy’ Features Local Stories

Everyone has a story and REACH Literacy of Sioux Falls has captured these stories of courage in a book that is a beautiful work of art.

Their book Journey to Literacy features 20 inspiring adult learners and their incredible journey to face, overcome and take charge of rewriting their life story.

"Journey to Literacy" is the title of the book and also the name of the event being held Thursday night June 18th from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm at the Icon Lounge in Sioux Falls. The event was created to bring awareness that over 15,000 people in the Sioux Empire do not have the basic literacy skills.

The event will also help raise critical funds to assist these individuals (learners) as well as to bring light to their new book. The 48-page black and white hardcover book features images of the learners taken by Chad Phillips Photography.

Here is a an except of two stories featured in the book:

Brad Wohlman

Although the Civil War ended 150 years ago, an important battle is still being waged.  Brad Wohlman’s fanatical interest in all things Civil War has pushed him to improve his reading and comprehension skills while giving him a means to connect with others.

Brad describes himself as hyperactive. He’s impulsive and easily distracted, though incredibly smart and excitedly genuine. Growing up, he was able to comprehend lessons and instruction verbally but struggled when it came to reading. Though he graduated high school, he feels as if his small town school just carried him along, never really helping him to realize his potential.

It wasn’t until a visit to Fort Snelling in St. Paul, Minnesota a few years ago that Brad found a unique way to tap into that potential. While there, he witnessed a Civil War reenactment and was immediately hooked. Then and there he decided he needed to learn more and knew he wanted to become a reenactor himself.  And so he did. He began working with a tutor at REACH in order to better read history books and study the reenactment military manual. Along the way, he found other benefits of reenactment, too.“It sounds weird, but in real life the reenactment stuff has helped me stay calm. I can take all my energy when I play.”Brad speaks proudly of the improvements he’s made and looks forward to more reading and learning.“I’m thinking about going back to school to get a history degree and then teach school-aged kids. Maybe it’s because I want to go back to catch these kids who are getting lost like me and help them find a hobby in life to learn how to read better, like I did.”

Tibitha Gai

“Put it in your heart. You can do anything if you put it in your heart.” Tibitha Gai told herself this when she first came to the United States from South Sudan as a refugee in 1994. She struggled adjusting to a new culture, one that knew little of the suffering she and her family endured in the war-torn country they once called home.“Put it in your heart,” she said several years later when her oldest daughter came home from school one day and asked her for help with homework. Unable to read the worksheet or the book her daughter placed in front of her, it was the best advice she could offer. “If you want to read well and learn well, you listen to your teachers and you work hard. You make a goal and you focus and you put it in your heart.”

“Put it in your heart,” she thought when she came to REACH to learn the alphabet. She needed a job and wanted so desperately to fill out her own application.

Today, Tibitha works as a meat cutter at John Morrell in Sioux Falls. A job she applied for without assistance, a job she enjoys because it’s hers. Her oldest daughter is now in college, as is her second daughter. Her four younger children are well on their way, too.She continues to work with a tutor to improve her reading and writing skills and hopes to someday write a book to share her experiences. “I want to tell the world what I had in my country. I survived the war and I came here. It was hard, but I made my life better. I have beautiful children and a simple family. I am proud and so, so happy. Put it in your heart…you can do it, too.”

If you know someone who would benefit from REACH Literacy of Sioux Falls click here for more info.