Thursday Morning Roundtable (TMR) presented its Meritorious Community Service Award to Margaret Charters at its April 17 meeting. In 1972, TMR established the annual award to present to individuals who make valuable contributions to the community without widespread recognition.
Charters, a longtime TMR member, has served on many boards and committees, including the Cooperative Extension, United Way and the New York State 4-H Foundation.
After her retirement from Syracuse University 18 years ago, Charters began helping the children at Dr. King School boost their reading skills and their love of books. She recruited about 35 adult volunteers who work with a total of 60 students twice a week to help them with reading, including sight word recognition and sounding out words. The reading program she initiated at Dr. King has inspired two other city schools to establish similar reading programs.
Charters has a doctorate in higher education, but went back to school and earned a master’s degree in literacy education to provide the best possible instruction to the children.
TMR is a weekly civic forum bringing together a mix of community leaders and experts from a variety of fields to learn about public issues and problems. For more information, contact Sandra Barrett, director of Community Programs at University College, at 315-443-4846 or cps@syr.edu.