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Tuesday, January 01, 2002

By Gene Collier, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Erin Ebeck isn't sure where it all started, but her mother remembers the magnetism of "Goodnight Moon." Those pages are as likely a genesis as any.

"Goodnight room, goodnight moon, goodnight cow jumping over the moon, goodnight light and the red balloon."

Those words from Margaret Wise Brown are so, so many pages ago in the life of the reading tutor phenomenon that is now 17-year-old Erin, a junior at North Hills High School and one of six recipients of the annual Jefferson Award, honoring Community Champion volunteers. What's transpired in the interim is the basis of her selection for the award ,considered the Nobel Prize of volunteering.

"She started with us in the summer reading camp after her sixth-grade year," said William Kofmehl, president of the Allegheny County Literacy Council.

"The first one was at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Perrysville.

"Her mom was the church secretary and told us about Erin, about how she always wanted to be a teacher, and she asked if Erin could have the opportunity to help us out. We didn't even know what we were going to have her do and had no idea what a sixth-grader would do in that situation."

"It makes me really happy when I see them finally read books for themselves," says Erin Ebeck, 17, who helps children with poor reading skills. (Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette)

What this particular sixth-grader would do, and what she's been doing every summer since, is transpose her love for the written word into the motivation of children whose reading skills not only suffered by comparison, but made them academically endangered.

"Sometimes it's sad," Erin said thoughtfully on a sofa in her parents' Ross home. "You can see these kids thinking and see that they want to learn, but they haven't had the help or the means to develop their reading ability.

"But it's not frustrating. It's exciting because you know it's going to happen for them; it makes me really happy when I see them finally read books for themselves."

That was a skill Erin developed at a very early age, partly as a result of obvious aptitudes she inherited from parents Edmund and Deborah Ebeck and partly because she just really wanted to. When she had five extra minutes, she had a book in her hands. Just about the only aspect of reading that Erin hasn't enjoyed is the attention her skills have attracted.

"She's not terribly thrilled about being put in for [a Jefferson Award]," said Kofmehl, "but if anybody should be nominated, it should be someone as dedicated as she is."

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, AT&T Broadband and Eat'n Park, with help from the United Way, sponsor Community Champions, a program of the national Jefferson Awards. The public and workers in the nonprofit community nominate people to be considered for Community Champions. Fifty were selected and featured in public service ads last year in the PG and in public service spots on A&T cable stations.

From that number, judges chose six people to receive Jefferson Awards. With the honor comes a medallion and $1,000 on behalf of the nonprofit organization of their choice. On Jan. 24 at 7 p.m., they will be recognized at a special reception and ceremony in Carnegie Music Hall, Oakland.

Erin's principal dedication has been as a "reading re-inforcer" at the Literacy Council's summer camps. But she also tutors elementary school children in her home after school two days a week and recruits literacy volunteers from among her friends.

The average reading level improvement among the children Erin has helped is nine months, or a full school year. Her impact has simply been enormous.

"She works very well with children, and the kids we get are by and large kids who are at risk of failure," Kofmehl said. "In many cases, what we've been able to do is keep these kids from repeating a grade. When you look at it that way, Erin has saved the taxpayers a lot of money. Anyone who fails is entitled to another year of free public education at a cost of between $10,000 and $12,000."

"Erin's seeing the difficulties that some of these kids have and I think it's made her more dedicated to being a teacher."

Her latest challenge has been to take responsibility for computer-assisted learning in the summer program.

"We added that component last summer and each child is taken out of class at different times during the day for work on the computer, a different kind of learning," said Linda Kofmehl of the Literacy Council. "She handled that all herself. She has a natural talent for working with kids. We have some children with learning disabilities, mild autism, mild mental retardation, and, in some cases, even some behavioral problems.

"She's able to handle all of that without me having to tell her much. She's just so helpful and so willing to do whatever you have for her. And she's such a shy little person. I keep calling her that even though she's a junior in high school."

Though she's involved in a number of extra-curricular activities and maintains her spot on the highest honor roll, nothing has diverted her focus away from becoming a teacher. It's only been intensified.

"I just really like working with kids; it's so much fun," she said. "I'm planning on going to Grove City College to major in elementary education and early childhood development."

Before that, there's one more summer session for Erin to impact, and innumerable hours of tutoring, all on a volunteer basis, all benefiting children at risk of falling hopelessly behind in an increasingly technological society.

"Six years or so down the line," William Kofmehl said, "some school district is going to get a wonderful and very dedicated teacher."

The Grable Family Foundation will donate $1,000 to the Allegheny County Literacy Council on behalf of Erin Ebeck.