Sheila Laury was in what she calls “a stop-out from corporate America” when she made a phone call that changed not just her life, but the lives of countless adults in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“One day I was resting, just laying across my bed and the TV was on. And what was on was a PSA from Walmart. And it was a gentleman in a formal suit playing a classical piano, and the jingle was ‘words are your wings.’ It grabbed me,” Sheila said. “And I was like, wow, I didn’t know there were people, adults, that could not read.”
She called the 1-800 number and kicked off a chain of events that shaped the next 23 years.
Her mission began when call was answered in Washington, D.C. The person on the other end of the line heard her and transferred her to the North Carolina Community College System in Raleigh. With each call transfer, Sheila made progress and she was connected with Dr. Randy Whitfield, then vice president of college and career readiness studies.
“I got connected with the right person. [Randy] was a light. She had a passion, and I had a birthed passion,” Sheila said.
Fill My Cup classroom
Directly following that conversation, Sheila went and purchased two personal computers. At the time, there were no grassroots adult literacy organizations in the Charlotte area, but Sheila was determined to plant that flag.
“I don’t even know how I did it, but I started connecting with people,” Sheila said, even going to people’s houses if need be.
And she kept showing up. And she went to meetings with other grassroots organizations in the state. And eventually, she received seed money.
“And then it just became a thing,” she said. Today, Fill My Cup, a ProLiteracy member program, is still growing and providing adults with basic literacy skills.
“I believe it was something personal now that I was called to do.”
Possibility and Hope
While Sheila humbly blushes at the thought of being compared to ProLiteracy co-founder Ruth Colvin, it’s hard not to see the similarities between their stories—both women learning there was an adult literacy issue; both inspired to step up and figure out what was next; both creating lasting change.
Today, on what would have been Ruth’s 109th birthday, we share Sheila’s story to celebrate how the spirit of possibility and hope that Ruth embodied continues to live on.
Sheila meeting Ruth
It’s a reminder that it only takes one person to start a movement. In 1961, when Ruth started Literacy Volunteers of America in her basement in her mid-40s, she never imagined the impact she would have. Like Sheila, she just wanted to know more.
Ruth passed away in August 2024, but her values and wisdom continue to inspire us. She was known for saying that “Age is just a number, it’s what you do with that number that counts.”
At ProLiteracy, we heard this often from Ruth. It was her mantra. She believed deeply in this bit of wisdom and carried it like it was her little secret that she had been enlightened to. If you were lucky enough, she would share it with you.
In fact, at age 98, she shared it personally with Sheila when they met at the 2015 ProLiteracy Conference on Adult Education in Charleston, South Carolina. It’s a moment Sheila cherishes.
Ruth inspired countless tutors and adults, becoming an honored figure in the adult literacy field. To meet her was, for many, a moment they will not forget. But Ruth never thought of herself as any different than anyone else. Remember her mantra: it’s what you do with your number that counts.
It was her reminder that you don’t need to create a nationwide movement to make an impact on the world. Any one of us has the power to make an impact if we pay attention and use our time to make the world a better place—Sheila is proof of that.