Tri-Cities students donate books for adult literacy

TRI-CITIES — Students in Deanna Gilmore‘s “Developing Literacy in a Multi-Cultural Setting” class have donated about 50 books to the Benton-Franklin Community Action Center’s Adult Literacy Program.

(Photo: Professor Deanna Gilmore (l-r) reviews books with Benton­Franklin Community Action Committee Adult Literacy Program coordinator Dave Pollington and executive director Judith Gidley.)

Some of the WSU Tri-Cities  students, most of whom are earning their master’s degrees, say they were inspired to donate when they saw the need for books with simple language that aren’t geared toward children.

The new books include sports stories, westerns, and romance novels about 70 pages long with large print.

“Being involved as volunteers with this community agency as part of their class the needs of the adult literacy program became clear to these students,” Gilmore says. “The community program needed books designed for adult nonreaders, what we call ‘high interest, low vocabulary’ book.”