SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Literacy Council Gets a Helping Hand

In the small, pine-paneled building in the Mission Flats neighborhood of San Juan Capistrano last week, nearly all 33 people in the room were talking at once.

At meetings conducted by the South Coast Literacy Council, that is precisely the idea. Teaching the English language, and getting newcomers to speak it, is what the all-volunteer organization was formed to do.

What is new for the 21-year-old council is its San Juan Capistrano location, a Scout hut owned by the Rotary Club of San Juan Capistrano. When the Rotary Club adopted literacy as its focus recently, it seemed natural to seek out the group of volunteers dedicated to the issue, said Dr. Michael Keith Nelson, a San Juan Capistrano Rotarian and local chiropractor.

“There are a lot of literacy groups out there, most of them well-funded, but this one seemed most worthy of our help,” Nelson said. “They are an all-local group, not some national or state-wide organization.”

The goal of the council--to help foreign-born residents or others who are not fluent in English learn to speak, read and write in English--also has a local appeal, Nelson said.

“Our community has always had a lot of Spanish-speaking people,” Nelson said. “We think it’s important to get them educated in English and help get them into the community that way.”

The arrival of the club on the literacy council’s scene could not have happened at a better time, said Tanya Macarewich of San Clemente, president of the group’s board of directors. Before the council moved into the 52-year-old Scout hut, the Rotary Club spent $2,000 upgrading the building with new carpeting, lighting and chairs, Macarewich said.

“We were growing out of our previous site,” Macarewich said. “We could not ask for a better location, near the downtown, centrally located, for our San Juan Capistrano students.”

In 1990, the council, which also teaches reading and writing to English-speaking students, tutored 1,478 students representing 40 different countries who live from San Clemente to Irvine. The vast majority of the students come from Mexico, with those from Japan a distant second and El Salvador third.

The work was done by 355 tutors ranging in age from 15 to 85, with more than half of them over 65. One tutor, Geraldine Banarer of Laguna Niguel, has been working without pay for 18 years and still spends two mornings a week counseling students on a one-on-one basis.

Banarer, who taught in public schools for 38 years, said her students come in all ages and abilities, from “absolute beginners” to advanced.

“It’s very rewarding, seeing somebody learn and knowing he or she is getting someplace,” Banarer said. “It can be very bewildering coming to a foreign country. But I enjoy seeing the reactions when students discover they have learned something. Their eyes open up and you can feel them thinking, ‘Now I know.’ ”