June 14, 2017

SVSU Community Writing Center to be introduced at Wirt Public Library in Bay City

Saginaw Valley State University has received grant funding to establish the Bay Area Community Writing Center, which will open in September at the Alice and Jack Wirt Public Library in Bay City.

SVSU received $16,500 from the Community Initiative Fund and the Youth Advisory Endowment Fund at the Bay Area Community Foundation. The funds will cover two years of support for student tutors from SVSU’s Writing Center; they will offer workshops as well as individual tutoring sessions for members of the Bay County community.

“We are delighted to partner with SVSU and the Wirt Library to provide this service to community residents,” said Eileen Curtis, president and CEO of the Bay Area Community Foundation. “The skills the writing tutors will share with individuals to help them become more effective writers will be of great benefit to our community.”

An opening for the Bay Area Community Writing Center is planned for Tuesday, Sept. 19. It will join the Saginaw Community Writing Center, hosted at the Butman-Fish Library in Saginaw, which began in September 2015.

Helen Raica-Klotz, director of the Writing Center at SVSU, said the Saginaw Community Writing Center is the first of its kind in Michigan. The new center in Bay City will become the second.

“We are excited to bring the expertise of our SVSU student tutors to Bay County to help all the members of this community develop their writing, whether it be polishing a resume, crafting a scholarship application, or writing a short story,” she said.

“At our Saginaw location, over 250 community members have participated in our individual tutoring sessions and writing workshops.”

The Bay Area Community Writing Center will be open from 4 to 8 p.m. the first and third Tuesday of each month at the Wirt Public Library in downtown Bay City.

“We are pleased to be able to host the center and collaborate with SVSU with the support of the Bay Area Community Foundation,” said Trish Burns, director of the Bay County Library System.

“As libraries continue evolving to meet diverse community needs, centers like this will become more important. The tutoring and workshops that take place in the center are another tool for patrons to use to continue building a better life.”

For more information about the Bay Area Community Writing Center, contact the SVSU Writing Center at (989) 964-2829.