[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 66 (Thursday, May 10, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3075-S3076]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO MARY LEAHY

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I rise on the Senate floor today to pay 
tribute to Mary Leahy, director at the Central Vermont Adult Basic 
Education--sister, friend, and lifetime educator--who is retiring this 
month.
  For 40 years, Central Vermont Adult Basic Education has provided free 
literacy services for adults and out-of-school youth. Thirty-seven of 
those years, Mary Leahy has been at the helm. In her role as codirector 
at Central Vermont Adult Basic Education, Mary dedicated herself to 
preparing lower skilled workers to meet the demands of the shifting 
economy.
  Whether it was attending townhalls, community centers and libraries, 
or knocking on doors directly, Mary has spread the word. She has 
recruited members for this program all over the State.
  I have seen the joy in the face of a grandfather able to read a 
children's story to a grandchild--something the grandfather was not 
able to do for that child's parent because he could not read when they 
were a child.
  In a recent article honoring Mary in the Times Argus, Vermont Poet 
Laureate Sydney Lea said these kind words about Mary:

       This has been way beyond a job for Mary; it's really a 
     vision of humanity that she's been dedicated to. I have an 
     admiration for her that is pretty close to boundless.

  I agree with my friend Sydney. Mary's lifelong passion for learning 
has enabled countless Vermonters to gain the critical skills needed to 
participate in today's workforce. In our country today, 88 million 
adults face at least one educational barrier, such as no high school 
diploma or no college, and only 3 to 4 percent of the workers with the 
most limited literacy proficiencies receive the basic skills training 
from their employers. Under Mary's guiding hand, Central Vermont Adult 
Basic Education has allowed Vermonters, young and old, to reach their 
full potential and to be successful both in the classroom and in the 
workforce--I might add parenthetically, also just in their everyday 
lives.
  As her older brother, I have known Mary all her life. She is a 
loving, intelligent, and hard-working person. She has the soul and 
talent of an artist and the generosity of a saint in sharing her talent 
and commitment.
  I am so proud of Mary, and I ask unanimous consent that the Times 
Argus article ``Closing a Chapter'' be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                 [From The Times Argus, April 30, 2012]

   Closing a Chapter: Mary Leahy Ends Career at adult Basic Education

                           (By David Delcour)

       Pages turn, chapters end, books close, and Mary Leahy--a 
     woman who has dedicated her life to literacy in central 
     Vermont--knows that better than most.
       On Tuesday, Leahy plans to put the proverbial ``period'' at 
     the end of her 37-year career with Central Vermont Adult 
     Basic Education. The Marshfield woman's name has become 
     synonymous with the organization where she's worked for 
     nearly four decades.
       And Leahy will tell you she's treasured every minute of it.
       ``I'm surprised I'm leaving,'' Leahy said during a Friday 
     afternoon interview at CVABE's office on Washington Street in 
     Barre. ``This is what I am because the work is every bit at 
     the center of my heart.''
       For those unfamiliar with CVABE, ``the work'' involves 
     providing ``free, individualized and confidential academic 
     services'' to folks who range in age from 16 to 90-something.
       Many are high school dropouts, some are immigrants 
     struggling to learn English, and still others are challenged 
     by a growing ``digital divide'' that didn't exist back in 
     1975 when a much younger Leahy ditched her job as a high 
     school art teacher to try something completely different.
       Seated in an armchair located in the shadow of a paper 
     mache version of Barre's ``Stonecutter'' memorial--this one 
     holding a book in an outstretched hand, instead of a hammer 
     at his side--Leahy said she has never regretted enlisting as 
     a foot soldier in one of the earliest fronts in the ``War on 
     Poverty.''
       ``When this job opened up, I went for it and it's grabbed 
     every single bit of imagination that I have,'' she said. ``It 
     has been endlessly interesting and incredibly rewarding.''
       It was also real work, according to Leahy.
       ``Back then all of us were working out of our cars and 
     going here and there and everywhere,'' she recalled. ``I've 
     tutored in barns, I've tutored in churches, I've tutored in 
     restaurants . . . wherever people were and (wherever they) 
     felt comfortable.''
       Leahy's initial assignment was to expand the then-loose-
     knit, Barre-based program into five communities in 
     Washington, Orange and Lamoille counties.
       ``That meant literally going through the hills and knocking 
     on doors and saying: This is a program, it's free, and do you 
     know anybody . . . who would find it helpful?'' she recalled.
       Those trips, Leahy said, were as much a search for 
     ``students'' as they were an attempt to recruit volunteers, 
     whom, she is quick to note, have long been the backbone of 
     CVABE.
       That outreach paid off, according to Carol Shults-Perkins, 
     who joined CVABE two years before Leahy and is the other half 
     of the organization's long-standing ``executive team.''
       ``We've been delivering, and committed to delivering 
     community-based services here in central Vermont for more 
     than 40 years now, but it really was Mary (Leahy) who began--
     community by community, town hall by town hall, library by 
     library engaging individual community members . . . and 
     ensuring that community partnership and community 
     participation has been part and parcel of the community-based 
     services we provide.''
       According to Shults-Perkins, who will soon assume the role 
     as CVABE's first executive director, the thought of running 
     the organization without Leahy sharing the helm is going to 
     take some getting used to.
       ``We have worked as a team for 35 years,'' she said. ``You 
     can't replace Mary (Leahy).''
       Shults-Perkins won't get any argument from Newberry 
     resident and Vermont Poet Laureate Sydney Lea. Lea, an 18-
     year member of CVABE's board of directors and its current 
     president, thinks highly of the woman who recruited him 
     during a chance encounter in a hospital parking lot.
       ``This has been way beyond a job for Mary (Leahy); it's 
     really a vision of humanity that she's been dedicated to,'' 
     Lea said.
       ``I have an admiration for her that is pretty close to 
     boundless,'' he added, noting when he had to pick someone to 
     install him as poet laureate last year, he turned to Leahy.
       ``She (Leahy) was the first person who came to mind,'' he 
     said. ``No fellow poets, no academics, just Mary.''
       A soft-spoken, silver-haired woman, with kind eyes and a 
     tendency to deftly shift the focus of a conversation away 
     from herself, Leahy speaks passionately about the importance 
     of adult education, the courage of those who avail themselves 
     to the services CVABE provides, and the commitment of an 
     ever-changing cadre of volunteers who ``find the time in 
     their busy schedules to make a difference.''
       It's a recipe that works, according to Leahy, who spent one 
     of her last days on the job pitching the merits of a program 
     that has been her life's work.
       ``We're really the earliest of early ed(ucation) 
     programs,'' Leahy said. ``If parents are really important to 
     their children's academic success, then for the parents who 
     missed out on their own education, it stands to reason their 
     child is not going to be on an equal playing field with other 
     kids . . . That's where we come in.
       ``If we can place ourselves in the public imagination as 
     part of the warp and weave of the entire fabric of education, 
     then we're there for people whose time is right,'' she said. 
     ``When they're ready to learn (and) they want to learn, we're 
     here to help.''
       Leahy said she is in the process of sifting through an 
     office filled with notes, letters, and student work that 
     underscore the life-changing nature of a basic education.
       ``It's like a memory tunnel,'' she said. ``I'm unearthing 
     all these wonderful things.''
       One was a note from a then-newly computer literate woman 
     who thanked her CVABE teacher for helping her master modern 
     technology.
       ``She was 90,'' Leahy said of the woman.
       Although Leahy believes it is time for her to retire from 
     CVABE, she said she won't be going far and will likely add 
     her name to the organization's roster of volunteers.
       ``I'll be around,'' she said.

[[Page S3076]]

       Leahy will also be missed, according to Lea, who penned a 
     poem--``Her Eyes''--that he read at her recent retirement 
     party.
       Here is what Lea wrote:

                                Her Eyes

     --for Mary Leahy, on her retirement
     I asked your friends about your eyes--what color
     They were, in a few short words. The answers ranged
     From what I'd expect, like sparkling, penetrating,
     To ones that were anything but: the earliest green
     Of spring, said one, another brook trout green.
     And yet the words they used around the colors
     They'd chosen made a chorus: compassion, kindness,
     Acceptance, faithfulness, honor. What can I add?
     Only that in my knowing and loving you
     These years, I've beheld within those eyes a shine
     That none of us will ever quite describe:
     A certain mystery flicker born of watching
     Pain for years yourself, and from its kindling
     In them what we, in our own crude ways, name hope.

                          ____________________