"It's like a job. You have goals. You see results" -Yuriy, Experience Corps Member

Congressman Tom Lantos Honored for Key Role in Supporting Experience Corps, Both Nationally and in San Francisco Schools

SAN FRANCISCO – Experience Corps members, students, and school staff honored and thanked Congressman Tom Lantos, whose support has been instrumental to the program's success, at a reception held this week at Francis Scott Key Elementary School.

Thanks in part to Congressman Lantos, today 1,800 Experience Corps members in 14 cities serve 20,000 students struggling to learn to read. In San Francisco and Oakland, 120 Experience Corps members now work with 1,000 students in grades K-8 to help them succeed.

In appreciation, Experience Corps member Virginia Sturwold and two students presented Congressman Lantos with a framed photograph that hung in the U.S. Senate Russell Rotunda in July 2005 as part of an exhibit that showcased the power of Experience Corps members to affect the lives of children. Rep. Lantos was an honorary co-host of the exhibit, "Experience Corps and the New Wave of Civic Engagement."

Congressman Lantos, a former professor and school board member, and his wife Annette, a former teacher, listened as several Experience Corps members thanked him for his commitment to the program and explained their own passion for it.

Rhoda Meer, like most Experience Corps members at Key Elementary, works with children who struggle to adjust to a second language. "I get the most wonderful satisfaction working one-on-one with these children," she said. "They can be brilliant in their written work, but the challenge is to draw them more and more into conversation. It's the most rewarding thing to see them gradually get more and more confident, raising their hand and having the courage to speak up."

Principal David Wong spoke of his gratitude to Congressman Lantos and to the Experience Corps team at Key. "Every time I see the kids with our volunteers, it's like magic, seeing their eyes light up," he said. "They touch the lives of our children."

Congressman Lantos noted that he was pleased to help support Experience Corps's work. "To see a bit of federal help to enable these wonderful people to give freely and joyfully and with love of their talent and attention and knowledge and experience to these kids is truly heartwarming," he said.

"The life of a member of Congress is so crowded and so full of a thousand things that, at the end of the day, you don't know who you saw in the morning, who you had breakfast and lunch with," Lantos said. "But this is an event that Annette and I will remember as long as we are in Congress." # # # Experience Corps, a national service program for Americans over 55, works to show that older adults are an untapped national resource and can be engaged to help solve serious social problems, including illiteracy. More than 1,800 Experience Corps members serve as tutors and mentors to children in urban public schools in 14 cities, where they help teach children to read and develop the confidence and skills to succeed in school and in life. Experience Corps is a signature program of Civic Ventures.