We are so excited to share our first Literacy Now Volunteer Spotlight of 2020! As a retired kindergarten teacher with over 40 years in the classroom and a true passion for cultivating literacy in children, Barbara Lamport is a perfect match as a volunteer for the Literacy Now Reading Intervention program at Walnut Bend Elementary School. It was a lucky day for our organization and the students of Walnut Bend when Barbara was visiting a friend at the school and observed the Literacy Now program in action! She had prior volunteer experience with another literacy program and realized how much she missed it. She immediately thought, “I want to do that!” Shortly after, she reached out to Literacy Now and has been working with the program since 2018.
Barbara is a native Houstonian who attended Lee High School & Trinity University. She married an Aggie and is mom to three grown children (an Aggie, a Longhorn, and a TCU Horned Frog). She enjoys spending time with her two (soon to be three) grandchildren and participating in a woman’s group at her church.
During her weekly sessions at Walnut Bend, Barbara supports kindergarten and first- grade students who are participating in the Literacy Now Reading Intervention program. Her role varies based on the needs of the students – working one-on-one with students, troubleshooting particular needs, or assisting the Literacy Now staff in small group activities. Barbara considers the time she spends with the students to be a privilege and enjoys being part of the Literacy Now program because of the impact it has on the children. In her own words, “Some don’t know what a letter is! Watching them grow is exciting…to watch the lightbulb go off…so exciting!”
