Melissa Gant

• Name: Melissa Gant

• Age: 28

• Family: Father, Murphy Gant; mother, Dokmai; sister, Jeanette; and brother, Murphy Jr.

• City of residence: Yuba City

• Occupation: Student

• How long have you lived in the Yuba-Sutter area? My entire life. I was born at Beale Air Force and my family moved to Yuba City in 1990.

• Hobbies, interests: I really love school, but I also enjoy video games, computer games and I love to read.

• For what groups do you volunteer? I've been tutoring with Sutter County Library Literacy for about a year. I have one student who is from Thailand, which I tutor for two or three hours each week in reading English. I'd like to take on more students, but I am in school and that takes up a lot of my time. I try to help her in any way I can, even if it means helping her during non-tutoring hours. We work on getting her ready for exams and practice reading.

• How do you fit it into your schedule? What works for me and my student is each Friday we study from about 10 a.m. to noon. Occasionally, she or I will have something else we need to do, so we will switch it to Saturday. I'm used to balancing things and prioritizing. Sometimes it means I won't get enough sleep, but it's worthwhile.

• Words of advice: Do something you love or something you're good it. If you don't have a lot of patience, then you shouldn't tutor. If you don't enjoy what you're doing, it will become monotonous, so don't sign up if you don't really want to do it.

Personally, I felt moved to get involved with the literacy program because my mother is from Thailand and I watched her struggle with speaking and reading English while I was growing up. It really hit home with me and I wanted to help.

• Positive and negative points about volunteering: The only negative is that there are not enough volunteers. A lot of students want one-on-one time with a tutor, but the resources are not available. I've had people ask me why I would tutor in the program if I wasn't getting paid — it's just something you do because you want to make a difference in someone else's life. The great thing about literacy is when you are helping the student, you are helping their children and brightening their futures.

• Quote: "A lot of people don't know there's help available through Sutter County Library Literacy, and it's free. If more people don't volunteer, there won't be this help available."

Volunteer of the Week runs Mondays on the Local page. To submit the name of a volunteer to be featured, send it to Volunteer, c/o Leticia Gutierrez, Appeal-Democrat, P.O. Box 431, Marysville, CA 95901. You also may call 741-2400; e-mail the submission to lgutierrez@appeal-democrat.com; or fax it to 741-0140.