Sebastian Foundation named recipient of the 6th annual Kathryn Timmer Literacy Award: Honoring an Outstanding Community Supporter of The Specialized Language Development Center

Since 1974, The Specialized Language Development (SLD) Center has been a community resource of West Michigan committed to bringing the power of reading, writing, and spelling to all individuals with dyslexia or other unique learning styles, enabling them to achieve their full potential.

For the sixth year, The SLD Center is honoring an outstanding community supporter of the Center and its mission to empower individuals to achieve their full potential with the Kathryn Timmer Literacy Award!

Kathryn Timmer was the first Director of the SLD Center in Grand Rapids when it opened its doors to serve a new community in 1987. Kathryn’s special dedication to teaching dyslexic students how to overcome their learning differences led hundreds of students to achieve their goals. Kathryn passed away unexpectedly in 1989 and continues to be missed by all who knew her. 

The first recipients of the Kathryn Timmer Literacy Awards in 2006 were The Fred M. and Bernedine Keller Family and Mary Ann March. In 2007 we honored Steelcase Foundation and in 2008 Zondervan Publishing and one of The Center’s first Language Links tutors, Grace Gunn. Amway was honored in 2009 and in 2010, Mark A. Murray accepted the award on behalf of Meijer.

This year, The SLD Center is pleased to present the Kathryn Timmer Literacy Award to the Sebastian Foundation. Sebastian Foundation enables a broad range of agencies and organizations to meet human needs, solve community problems, and enrich lives through the arts and education. Sebastian Foundation grants are generally made to organizations, projects, and programs in the areas of arts and culture, community and economic development, education, environment, health, and human services. Special consideration is given to grant requests involving people who are disadvantaged, disabled, young, or elderly.

The Sebastian Foundation has been a donor to The SLD Center since 1987 and was instrumental in the creation of three of our main programs. They truly exemplify the meaning of the Kathryn Timmer Literacy Award.

In 1992, the Sebastian Foundation contributed to the seed funding to launch the Language Links program in the Grand Rapids public schools. This program provides two hours per week of individual, specialize instruction to 1st and 2nd grade economically disadvantaged children who are significantly below grade level in reading and spelling, but do not qualify or receive Special Education services. There is no charge for this service to either the parents or the school and all tutoring is done during the school day. They continue to fund the Language Links program today.

The Sebastian Foundation donated to the seed funding to launch the Teacher Education Program in 2003. This gift established our community outreach/training and Engage the Brain workshops. The Teacher Education Program works in collaboration with schools to provide teacher with the needed tools and technique in order to reach more students in the classroom.

 In 2005, Sebastian Foundation contributed to the seed funding to launch the “ICanREAD” Program working with local colleges and providing our International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council (IMSLEC) accredited Phonics Fundamental training to upperclassmen in the education department for credit. In return, these students will volunteer 50 hours of tutoring to underprivileged individuals who otherwise could not afford services.

Throughout the years, the Sebastian Foundation has been instrumental in the advancement of our programs, assisted with the sustainability of each program, and provided the opportunities to the Center to insure that all individuals can receive services regardless of the socio-economical status.

Sebastian Foundation will be honored at Kathryn Timmer Literacy Awards Gala on March 10, 2011 at the Grand Rapids Community College Wisner-Bottrall Applied Technology Center. Tickets to the event will be available online in February.