Director of literacy program turning the page

After dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's for 14 years, the executive director of Yuma's literacy program is moving on to a new chapter.
 
Barbara Sutton and her family are moving to Maine, taking her away from Adult Literacy Plus of Southwest Arizona, a nonprofit organization that Sutton says has fed her heart.
 
"This has been an all-around positive experience. Seeing the impact the program has on people and the difference it's made in their lives is just amazing."
 
Sutton began working with Adult Literacy Plus of Southwest Arizona, formerly known as the Yuma Reading Council, in 1995.
 
Sutton explained that her husband, Matt, has been promoted to a post with the U.S. Border Patrol in Houlton, Maine. The husband moved during the winter and Sutton has remained behind in Yuma to get the couple's three kids through the school year.
 
"I'm sad to leave my friends, sad to leave people behind. I have been working with the girls at (the program) for years. We have all been there together for a long time."
 
Natacha Dannenberg, the program's board president, credited Sutton with moving the literacy center through a series of changes that ultimately transformed the program.
 
"She was the leader, the problem solver, the soother and no matter which hat she was called upon to wear, she saw things through to resolution," Dannenberg said. "She fretted over serious decisions and responded to the middle-of-the-night calls when our security alarm went off."
 
Dannenberg praised Sutton's leadership for helping the literacy program upgrade to a new location, add GED classes, offer scholarships and create distance learning programs in the Foothills, Somerton, San Luis and Wellton.
 
"Barb's heart was evident in her drive to serve our mission to be a full-time advocate for adult literacy in southwest Arizona. She understood that through our mission, we changed lives through outreach programs, workplace training and tutoring and that we facilitated success within the family, the workplace and the community."
 
Sutton and her family moved to Yuma from Virginia in 1989. She began working at Adult Literacy Plus of Southwest Arizona after working for the Saguaro Foundation for a while, plus working at home and raising a family.
 
"I was going back to work after being at home for several years with little kids. I wanted to get a job where I was able to make a difference, to be able to help somebody. I truly believe in educated people and educated communities. Literacy is the one thing that can truly fix all the other problems."

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Darin Fenger can be reached at dfenger@yumasun.com or 539-6860.