By Kelly Malone

Sask. woman shows it’s never too late to learn

Sep 25, 2014 | 7:40 AM

Lucinda Nielsen is showing the province that it is never too late to learn. The 79-year-old recently picked up her Grade 12 diploma and even a few awards.

Nielsen's story and achievements were front and centre Wednesday afternoon at St. Paul's Hospital where it was announced that 13 organizations across Saskatchewan would receive $814,231 to support adult literacy programs and services.

“It's the best decision I have ever made. I went for nine and a half years and I'd do it all over again if I could,” Nielsen said with a beaming smile.

Growing up in Manitoba, Nielsen stopped school in Grade 3 to help out her family. Later, she was married and said that without further education she was only hired for things like cleaning jobs. When her husband died, she moved to Saskatchewan and into a seniors' lodge in Rosthern.

“I saw an ad in the paper and it was just the local paper … When I saw that it sure interested me,” Nielsen said.

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She was 70 years old when she arranged to go back to school in Duck Lake.

“I went to the door and I had the door knob in my hand and thought should I run away or should I go in? I went in and found the most delightful teacher,” Nielsen said.

Starting with elementary school lessons and quickly moving up the grades, Nielsen loved to learn.

“I was very proud that I had gone to school. I was empowered. I could brag, which I did a lot!” Nielsen said with a laugh.

“I lived in a lodge and all those old grandmas they absolutely couldn't believe I went back to school at my age. I did homework for hours and hours on end. I laid in my bed with books on top of me. All of a sudden I would see the clock was midnight and I'd have to go to bed.”

After nearly a decade of hard work with her tutor and READ Saskatoon volunteer Pat Cooley, Nielsen graduated in 2014.

“It's the best decision I've ever made,” Nielsen said, adding that if other adults and seniors should follow suit.

“Go in. Find the great teacher you will have. You have no idea what's in front of you.”

READ Saskatoon received $66,861 of continued funding towards their adult literacy programming during Wednesday's announcement.

“We are very excited having a renewal of the amount they have committed to is just a fantastic acknowledgement of the hard work that we are doing,” READ executive director Sheryl Harrow-Yurach said.

“The main part is that it funds the adult one-to-one tutoring program.”

Harrow-Yurach explained that one in three people in the Saskatchewan struggle in literacy and that number is only growing parallel with the province.

“We are feeling a lot more pressure, a lot more people coming to our door but our capacity is pretty much tapped even with the renewal of the contract [with the province],” she said.

“There is always a growing need but we need to manage expectations… It's more important that we do a really good job with the people in our program than pushing people in and out of the door.”

MLA Russ Marchuk, legislative secretary for the minister of education, was on hand to make the announcement.

“We have improvements to make system wide and literacy of course is a corner stone of everything we do. Anything that we can do to further literacy in all of it's forms we need to do that.” he said.

“It's empowering. Once you empower people that their voice is heard and understood and taken seriously, that's the value of literacy. That's the power of literacy.”

The other organizations to receive funding were Carlton Trail Regional College, Cumberland Regional College, Great Plains College, Northlands College, North West Regional College, Parkland Regional College, Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology, Southeast Regional College, The Circle Project Associated, Lloydminster Learning Council, Regina Public Library, and College Mathieu Gravelbourg.

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