Louise Scott was hoping to meet people and make a few new friends when she began volunteering in the 100 Mile House community seven years ago.
New to the South Cariboo and recently retired, Scott learned about a volunteer tutoring program run by Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy.
She began attending weekly conversation circles for English language learners to help with basic vocabulary and sentence structure. At first, she was a bit intimidated in the room full of strangers, each speaking a foreign language, she recalled. But before long, she learned ways to engage with the learners despite the language barriers and quickly began to form friendships that have lasted several years.
“I really like the social aspect of this volunteer work,” said Scott, who also helps out with the 100 Mile Rotary Club.
“It’s a nice social outing. And the friendships that came out of it have been a bonus, too.”
Scott has worked with learners in both group settings or as a one-on-one English tutor. And although many have moved on from the South Cariboo, they often keep in touch with her. One student in particular now lives near Ottawa, but the two still have weekly phone calls to catch up and practice the learner’s English.
“Usually once a week she will text and ask if I have time to chat, and I always enjoy talking to her,” Scott said. “It’s amazing to me, when I first met her in 2018, I think she only knew 10 words. Fast-forward four years and we can talk for an hour.”
Fostering those connections is such an important part of the CCPL program, according to English learning coordinator Brenda Vallee, who said Scott’s volunteer contributions are “extremely valuable.”
Scott helps learners to settle in, Vallee said, especially those new to Canada and experiencing some major adjustments to their new lives in the South Cariboo.
“She has been with the organization longer than I have, so she is very helpful in that regard,” Vallee said. “She has an historical understanding of the learners’ needs in our community.”
Vallee said Scott has a particular talent in remembering learners’ birthdays and will make sure to reach out or plan a special coffee date to mark the occasion.
“She is really good at caring for the learners outside of her ‘on duty’ time,” Vallee said.
Her tendency to care for others may be a product of living in small communities her whole life, Scott said. Born and raised in Ontario, she and her husband spent many years raising their kids in the Northwest Territories, first in Norman Wells, then in Fort Smith.
She describes the small northern communities as a “great place to raise kids” and fondly recalls the simple upbringing her children were able to have there.
“In the winter, it’s dark until around 11 and then dark again at 2, so when summer came around we told the kids no TV as soon as school was out,” Scott recalled, adding that her kids were then left to “make their own fun” over the summer months.
“Then come September, we said ‘OK we can turn the TV back on’ and they said, ‘oh, do we have to?’”
Scott said the fact that her own kids’ lives were impacted by many volunteers - such as coaches for their sports teams - inspired her to seek volunteer opportunities when she retired from Service Canada 10 years ago.
“It does take a village, I don’t know what we would have done without all these volunteers out there,” she said.
Scott encourages others in the community to consider donating some time to one of the many worthy organizations in the South Cariboo community.
“If you have some free time, you want to meet people and you enjoy helping people, come on out,” she said. “It’s very rewarding.”
melissa.smalley@100milefreepress.net
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