Ninety-nine years old. Still driving. Still painting stage sets. It may sound like a movie plot, but it’s not. It’s a Tri-County Literacy Council student.
He was an artist who kept volunteering at the Upper Canada Playhouse in Morrisburg, driving out on his own to paint sets. His family wanted him carrying a cell phone. So he sat down with a literacy tutor and learned how to use one.
“He texted his daughter each morning to let her know he was OK,” says Carol Anne Maloney, Coordinator of Volunteers at TCLC. “He also became confident using the phone in case he ever needed assistance.”
Maloney calls it “a wonderful reminder that it is never too late to learn.” It’s also what forty years of work looks like on the ground: a man in his late nineties, sitting across from a volunteer, figuring out how to send a text message.
It started in a basement
Tri-County Literacy Council was founded in Cornwall in 1986, when a small group from T.R. Leger Alternative School, St. Lawrence College and the Cornwall Public Library saw a gap: rural learners and people facing barriers who couldn’t access existing programs. They found funding, trained volunteer tutors, and started free, confidential tutoring out of somebody’s basement.
Ten learners that first year.
They outgrew the basement by 1988 and moved to Second Street West, by then serving over a hundred people. In 2001 they took over the old Trinity Anglican Church manse at 101 Second Street West. In November 2024 they moved into a modern downtown space at 333 Pitt Street with a computer lab that doubles as a classroom.
Four addresses in forty years. Same mission the whole way.
What we get wrong about literacy
Say “literacy” and most of us picture an adult who can’t read. That image is decades out of date.
“Literacy is no longer defined solely by reading, writing, and math,” Maloney says. Today it covers the nine federally recognized Skills for Success: reading, writing, numeracy, communication, collaboration, digital technology, problem solving, adaptability, and creativity and innovation.
Does anyone master all nine? Every one of us is somewhere on a learning curve.
“In a world that is constantly evolving,” Maloney says, “we all need to continue learning and updating our skills throughout our lives.”
Who walks through the door?
Everybody. The senior who got a tablet for Christmas. The adult who wants to read more comfortably. The person getting ready for a job, or college, or more independence.
One woman left high school during the pandemic and couldn’t finish when she tried to go back. With one-to-one tutoring, she prepared for the Canadian Adult Education Credential — the CAEC, which replaced the GED across Canada in May 2024 and earns Ontario candidates a High School Equivalency Certificate. She passed.
“Earning her CAEC has opened the door to new employment opportunities,” Maloney says, “and has given her the opportunity to pursue a college education and the career she has always wanted.”
A man in his sixties lost his job. Job Zone sent him to TCLC because he needed computer skills just to look for work — you can’t apply for a warehouse job now without an email address. A tutor walked him through email, Google searches, online applications.
“His confidence grew with each new skill he mastered,” Maloney says. He got hired.
None of that has to do with intelligence. It has to do with circumstance.
Every program is free. You need to be 18 or older, live in Ontario, and have a Social Insurance Number. That’s it.
But to keep doing it…
The bulk of TCLC’s funding comes from the provincial Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. They also landed a Grow Grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation this year, going toward helping newcomers and immigrants strengthen their communication skills.
But Maloney doesn’t pretend the ground is solid.
“As economic uncertainty continues, the stability of provincial funding remains an ongoing concern,” she says. “Sustained investment in adult literacy and lifelong learning is essential.”
Grants end. Priorities shift at Queen’s Park. An agency that has served this community for forty years still has to make its case every funding cycle, against whatever is loudest that year. Adult literacy is never the loudest thing: it comes with a 99-year-old man texting his daughter, and nobody puts that on a billboard.
The next forty years
“Past generations could never have imagined the world we live in today,” Maloney says. “Likewise, it is difficult to imagine what our world will look like 40 years from now.”
Her argument: the pace of change is accelerating, adaptability becomes the core survival skill, and “organizations that provide free and accessible learning opportunities will be more valuable than ever.”
What has to change isn’t TCLC. They’ve got the model — free, one-to-one, meet the person where they are. What has to change is us: the assumption that literacy support is for other people, the stigma that keeps someone from walking through that door on Pitt Street, and funding that treats adult learning as optional rather than as infrastructure, like roads and bridges.
TCLC also runs on tutors — ordinary people who give a learner a couple of hours a week. If you’ve got the time, they’ll train you. Call 613-932-7161 or visit tricountyliteracy.ca.
And if you’ve been meaning to call for yourself? Forty years, thousands of learners, and a 99-year-old who decided it wasn’t too late. It isn’t too late.
On Thursday, September 24th we invite you all to come and celebrate our 40th Anniversary, 1 to 3pm at 333 Pitt St. Unit 103 in Cornwall.
About the Author
