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Show r Nash: 'Tutor of the Year7 ( i f f' 1 - 1 WdCad&i W W1 a .Wuyjlt'A';' (W . d-.vidt . . , . . -. " - .,- . .Jh 4t. ,i - J By PAUL CHALLIS B OUNTIFUL Dav id Nash used to lead a fairly common life as a self-employed landscaper before he met a newly-arrived Russian immigrant im-migrant family one year ago and became a volunteer tutor. On Nov. 14-17 at the Salt Palace at the National Convention of the Literacy Volunteers of America (LVA), Nash, a Bountiful resident, will receive the "Tutor of the Year" award from a pool of 80,000 other volunteers throughout the nation. "It is quite an honor for David to be selected and to be recognized for his unselfish service,' Mary Hausen, coordinator of Literacy Volunteers of America - Wasatch Front (LVAWF) said. "We have several other outstanding volunteer tutors teaching English as a second language, but this past year no one has gone beyond the call of duty as much as he has. David deserves the honor." Nash first learned about the volunteer vol-unteer tutoring program one night as he was listening to a radio talk show. "I called the radio station and they told me how to contact the people that run the program in Salt Lake City." He met the Sazakov family from Moscow before he had started the training process just as they came off the plane from Russia. "They didn't know a word of English and I didn 't know any Russian. We learned the whole process together." Nash took the 16-hour workshop and began teaching the Sazakov s David Nash (second from left) has been honored as 'Tutor of the Year' by Literacy Volunteers of America from 80,000 others in the United States. Nash is seen with the Russian family he taught English to as a second language including Nina, Grandma, Yury and Yera. Nash helped Yury Sazakov learn enough English to pass the difficult heavy truck driver's test. According to Nash's supervisors he has gone beyond the call of duty with his tutor family. the basic survival techniques including in-cluding money exchange, emergency emergen-cy numbers for doctors and hospitals and, of course, English. "It was amazing to take them shopping to a supermarket for the first time and to see their eyes and the look on their faces. They were accustomed to standing in long lines, and they had never seen so much food and other items in one place before," Nash said. Nash and Yury Sazakov quickly developed a long-lasting friendship and he began to donate more than the two hours required by LVA per week to his tutor family. "I had reservations re-servations when I first started the tutoring, but it was so enjoyable and worthwhile I just couldn't keep away from my family," he said. According to Hausen, Nash and the four members of the Sazakov family including, Nina, Yury's wife, Nina's mother and Nina's cousin, Yera, have all grown from the association with each other. "David told us he was shy when he first started and if that was true, he certainly isn't anymore," Hausen said. "One of the reasons he was nominated from our affiliate is because he participates not only with his assigned family, but he helps train the other volunteers and participates in all the activities and clean-up days." Hausen said the national judges were very impressed with how much Nash's family had progressed in just one year. He has helped a family from being a potential welfare case to being self-sufficient in a new country. Nash helped Yury learn enough English to take and pass the heavy-load heavy-load truck driver's test. Yury will possibly earn $50,000 a year as a trucker driving from Salt Lake to Seattle twice a week. "David found someone to translate the instruction handbook from English to Russian to help Yury leani the things he needed to know to pass the test--a test that only one in 14 Americans can SEE Nash PG. C-3 r she said. 'I think that about sums it up." in the Wasatch Front area two years. Besides the Salt Lake City affiliate, Logan and Price have partial par-tial groups that are just getting developed. de-veloped. "We have taken 12 families off welfare this year alone by teaching them English and helping them get adjusted to a new country and culture, she said. The LVA currently has 87 volunteer vol-unteer tutors and about 157 students. Hausen adds that the office of-fice tries to match the students and tutors up and usually finds the right combination. 'A11 the volunteers do a great job." Hausen said it isn't all hard work, one of the assignments is to help them expand culturally by attending plays, the symphony and other related activities. ' I would bet many of the families will be treated to a Thanksgiving dinner this year by the tutors or they will make sure the new immigrants have a turkey to cook," she said. Hausen said the best example she can think of to show how dedicated Nash is to his tutor family has to with Yury's love of ice cream. "David insisted that Vury try all 31 flavors at Baskin-Robbins to make sure he would find his favorite," Nash CONT. FROM PG. C-2 pass," Hausen said. "What they have accomplished together is just amazing.' Nash says that one of the most amusing stories he remembers with the Sazakovs was when they spent two hours trying to figure out how to translate a certain fish. They couldn't get through to each other a crawdad or crawfish. "We drew pictures forever of different fish, and they wanted to know what a crawdad was called in English. We laughed and laughed when we finally final-ly figured it out." According to Nash, the gals (Nina and Yera) are going to college col-lege and studying for several hours each night for their classes and try-- try-- ing to make the most of an oppor-, oppor-, . tunity in a new country where they are free to do what they want. Nash started out planning to give two volunteer hours a week and ended up over the last year donating between 30 to 40 hours a week and at least 100 hours a month. "It is one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done and definitely the most rewarding. He has also helped the Sazakovs establish credit and purchase a car. "They recently bought a TV and a VCR, but they are still very afraid of banks and won't deposit their money in one," Nash said. According to Hausen, LVA was first organized 29 years ago in the Midwest and has been functioning |