For Immediate Release: March 20, 2006

For more information, contact: Stefanie Weiss, 202-478-6151 sweiss@experiencecorps.org

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CLEVELAND – Lois Hagood, a retired post office supervisor, has been an Experience Corps member for six years now, putting in thousands of hours helping teach first graders to read. That extensive and consistent commitment to service earned her special recognition from President George W. Bush during his recent visit to the city.

Hagood was selected to greet President Bush when he arrived at Cleveland Hopkins Airport, where she spoke with him on the tarmac and received the President's Volunteer Service Award. Hagood then traveled with the President's motorcade to the Cleveland City Club, where she and her daughter had reserved seats for President Bush's speech.

"It was a wonderful experience," Hagood said. "When he came off the plane, I was waiting to greet him and he said, 'Come over here and hug me, I have something for you.' He gave me the pin and said, 'Tutoring is great, and you have stepped out and taken the lead.'"

The President's Volunteer Service Award was created in 2003 "to recognize the best in American spirit," to honor those who have "demonstrated outstanding volunteer service," and to "encourage all Americans to improve their communities through volunteer service and civic participation."

Hagood's presidential encounter garnered a lot of local attention. Hagood and the city's Experience Corps project -- hosted in Cleveland by the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program -- were the focus of several local broadcast and print news stories. And Thomas J. Longo, the mayor of nearby Garfield Heights, called Hagood (a resident there) to congratulate her and to express interest in starting a tutoring program in the town. "I told him that Experience Corps can get you on your way," she said.

Hagood's visit with the President was both thrilling and exhausting, but she wasted no time returning to her tutoring duties at Cleveland's Robert H. Jamison's Computech Center. "I went to school the next day, and they said, 'What are you doing back here?'" Lois says. "I told them, 'Time to get back to business.'" # # # 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. Today more than 1,800 Experience Corps members serve as tutors and mentors to children in urban public schools and after-school programs, where they help teach children to read and develop the confidence and skills to succeed in school and in life. Research shows that Experience Corps boosts student academic performance, helps schools and youth-serving organizations become more successful, strengthens ties between these institutions and surrounding neighborhoods, and enhances the well-being of the volunteers in the process. Experience Corps is a signature program of Civic Ventures.