Kat DeRemer - Improving Lives Through Reading

​21,000 adults living in Muskegon County would struggle to read this blog.

Hello! My name is Kat DeRemer, a first year MNA AmeriCorps VISTA serving with READ Muskegon, in Muskegon Michigan. My family moved to Muskegon when I was in eighth grade, so I am actually from Muskegon. I decided as a kid that I wanted my future career to have something to do with books, but that was about all I knew. Now through the AmeriCorps VISTA program I work with READ Muskegon, a non-profit with the mission of increasing the quality of life in Muskegon County through improved literacy. I was a student intern from Grand Valley State University (GVSU) for READ Muskegon before I learned about the VISTA position. I enjoyed being an intern for READ Muskegon! I was excited when I learned that I could pursue my passion for literacy (what my love of books turned into) and continue giving back to my community through this incredible organization.

I recently was almost recruited for a pyramid scheme. I did not realize it until I described the initial meeting with someone else. I thought it was a professional networking and mentor group. The reason I am bringing this up is that the person I met with asked me about what I am involved with at READ Muskegon. Most of the time I can give a succinct explanation of what I do, and I will go into detail if someone asks me about a specific program. This time I laid out everything I do. It made me realize how far I have come since becoming a member of AmeriCorps VISTA. I had to stop myself from writing about all that I do in this blog post as it would be a long post. To put what I do succinctly, at READ Muskegon I work on curriculum development, sustainability, volunteer support and management, learner support, fundraising, outreach (general and specific), program facilitation and support, and program development and redevelopment.

The programs I am a directly a part of at READ Muskegon are the Women’s Literacy Class at the Muskegon County Jail, Play and Learn, English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) Class, ABC’s of Cooking Class, Empowering Ex-Offenders in Transition (EXIT) Family Literacy Dinners, and the MI Works class. For these classes or programs, I provide support for the One-on-One tutoring program by helping organize tutor training and round table events; EXIT classes, Men’s Literacy Class at the Muskegon County Jail by sometimes rewriting lesson plans to be clearer and gathering materials; and general support for large events like Read Muskegon’s Holiday Village, annual fundraising dinner, and other large outreach events.
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I have been a part of the Women’s Literacy Class since September 2016 when I became a volunteer for READ Muskegon. Now I teach the class while my supervisor is on maternity leave and rewrite the lesson plan descriptions so that anyone could teach the class. The class focuses on developing literacy for daily needs, like filling out and understanding forms, helping their children with schoolwork, reading and writing on the job, among other topics. This is my favorite program to be a part of at READ Muskegon! I have learned so much from the women I have worked with at the jail. It is extremely rewarding to see women who have not read out loud at all before, decide to read out loud and listening to them improve in both confidence and fluency each week.