The Pilot Club of Suffolk recently honored a Suffolk Literacy Council tutor as its Tutor of the Year.

Louise Ross, who has been tutoring for two or three years, got involved after she retired through a couple of neighbors who were tutors.

“I had all this time, and I didn’t want to weed all day,” she joked.

Ross, a former teacher and nurse, said she enjoys working with her students. She currently has three students.

“You kind of get to know the people, and I love that,” she said. “One of my students is so enthusiastic, and he’s just so joyful.”

That particular student is so thankful for what the literacy council has done for him that he’s also gotten his younger sister enrolled as a student.

“It’s like a calling,” Ross said. “The more you think about it, the more you understand you have to do something for these people.”

According to Jessica Reitz, tutor coordinator for the literacy council, one in six adults in Suffolk reads below a fifth-grade level.

Georgie Copeland, a member of the Pilot Club of Suffolk, said the club feels it’s important to honor local people who are giving back.

“We feel it’s important to give back to the community, and this is just one way of doing it,” she said.

Ross said the tutors get “fantastic support” through training, the Laubach Way to Reading curriculum, a facility in which to tutor and more.

The literacy council has 98 students currently enrolled and has a waiting list of 10, Reitz said. About a third of the students are learning English as a second language. It has two part-time staff members.

“We try to be really good stewards of the things we have,” Reitz said.

To that end, the council is piggybacking on a regional initiative for its annual fund drive, board member Clint Rudy said.

“We want to build on the enthusiasm, the publicity and the coordination of this effort,” Rudy said of GiveLocal757, which is encouraging local folks to give to any of more than 200 nonprofit organizations through a common website on May 3.

The council hopes to surpass last year’s fund drive total of about $5,200, Rudy said. However, “success can also be measured by who discovers us through this,” he said. “Whether they contribute or just find out about us and want to become a tutor or need our services, that would be great.”

The council also conducts summer camps for adults. “It allows the students to have a competitive spirit,” board member Wanda Olden said.

A mathematics lab at Paul D. Camp Community College also serves to expose students to college life, Olden added.

“We’ve been so excited about the growth,” board member Gin Staylor said. “It has been positive.”

For more information on the literacy council, call 514-7733 or visit www.learn2readsuffolk.org.