May 2007 – Megan Cummins

May 1, 2007 | 826 Blog Post

Megan Cummins

Megan Cummins

Let’s start with a list of words: sweet, reliable, dedicated, sweet, smart, kind, shy, and sweet. That is how we begin to describe May’s Volunteer of the Month, Megan Cummins.

As a member of the volunteer class of Fall 2005, Meg’s been with us just about since the beginning. She has, since September of that year, tutored at least once a week. She’s also been instrumental in helping out with our in-schools program, and, according to Erin, she’s “one of, if not the, most reliable volunteer we’ve ever had.” At drop-in writing time last summer, she also wowed us. This girl can write. We mean it. She’s a really good writer: funny and sad and moving and always, always creative.

In addition to being stellar, all around, as a volunteer, Meg also comes to most of our events. She was at our first fundraiser, Monsters’ Ball; and she’s come to our benefit shows, our volunteer events, our readings, and our birthday parties.

Meg, being as sweet (did we mention that already?) and shy as she is, seems the type who is sometimes overlooked for things. She is the opposite of a squeaky wheel. And so we are excited to have this public opportunity to say: Hey Meg! We think you’re awesome! We love you! We appreciate every little thing you’ve done for us!

Meg also once wrote this, which we are endlessly in love with:

I once tutored a fourth grader named Alex. He was working on a story about goblins. He told me that goblins aren’t very smart, but then he started writing about a really complicated trap the goblin chieftain set up — seriously, this thing had motion detectors and a compound bow that was triggered by said motion detectors — really, the works. I asked him if this chieftain was smarter than the rest of the goblins, and Alex said, “Just because goblins aren’t intelligent doesn’t mean they’re not skilled.”

So, tutoring is important for me because it at once gives me nostalgia for my own childhood (when I might have already known why the goblin could build his trap) and excitement for the men and women these kids are going to grow into.

This summer, Meg is traveling to Iceland, how cool is that? (Awkward way to “explain” the picture, sorry about that.)


Related Posts