St. Petersburg resident, Ruth Feldman, heard Frank Laubach speak in 1968 about his “Each One, Teach One” program to train people to read. She decided to bring the method to her hometown, and enlisted eight women to be tutors, and the Literacy Council of St. Petersburg was born.
Courtland & Virginia Gildrie

With the help of Pasadena Community Church, the Council received $100 to purchase literature. It was decided then that teachers would pay for their own material, but students would pay only if they could afford to do so. The Council welcomed its first pupil, and soon the original class members, having received their Frank Laubach certificates, started organizing more teacher training classes. The Council received official status as a non-profit organization in 1971.

The organization grew and many of its students were immigrants learning English for the first time. So in the mid-1980’s, the Clearwater group formed its own organization, the Literacy Council of Upper Pinellas, and focused on its English as a Second Language program.

In 1986, a special adult program was begun with the tutors meeting one-on-one with students in St. Petersburg at Lakewood Community School. Northeast Community School and Dixie Hollins Adult Education Center, soon followed. Three additional locations have since been added, including pTEC South Campus, Seminole Community Library-SPC Campus and Tomlinson Adult Learning Center. Each location now has its own coordinator who interviews students and assigns them tutors.

According to Virginia Gildrie, who came to be one of the Council's prolific life-members, “The reluctant student who has had negative experiences at school, willingly comes to meet just one person who focuses on him. In addition, the sites are close to the homes of both the student and the tutors, and the student sees others who are working as hard as he is, and is encouraged by that.”

Mrs. Virginia Gildrie passed away February 5th, 2011. She will be sadly missed, but her legacy lives on through an award in her name recognizing an Outstanding Student of the Year.

Courtland Gildrie, Virginia's husband until his death in 2005, served as a coordinator for many years and also has an award for Outstanding Tutor of the Year, in his name.

Documentation of the history is being archived with the Historical Society of St. Petersburg.