Tucson  Area  Reading  Council

Celebrate Literacy Award Recipient 2002

Regina Kelly - Community Award

     Regina's contributions to literacy involve her as executive director of "VOICES:  COMMUNITY STORIES PAST AND PRESENT."  This magazine began in 1995 when various agencies in Tucson hired her to compile an oral history of the A  Mountain Neighborhood, with high school students working for the city's summer job corps as her reporters.  A beautiful book came from hard work and her tough experience with a group of street-wise adolescents.  Then she was asked to work with students in another housing project that was to be torn down, and to record its history before all the residents left.  This resulted in another book entitled, "DON'T LOOK AT ME DIFFERENT."

     Her latest endeavor has been a magazine called "100°:  TUCSON'S YOUTH TELL TUCSON'S STORIES."  This publication includes both history and modern day life stories through interviews, editorials, and poems.  She saw youth change from reluctant, sullen non-writers to self-confident published authors on the road to careers in writing.  Kelly discovered that she is a teacher as well as a journalist.  Her students learned to do research in the archives of the Tucson Newspaper, choose incidents of interest, find family members involved in the incidents and interview them.  They learned interview skills, transcribing, and the importance of proof reading and the necessity of deadlines.  This project is an exciting collaboration between many community organizations--led by Regina's enthusiasm, warmth and professionalism.