05/18/2026
Please join us in congratulating Adult Learning Alliance Arkansas Reads member Margaret Davenport! Last week she received the Americorps member of the year award recognizing her excellent service tutoring adults in Dardanelle! Here she is pictured with RVALA director and Arkansas READS! director, Belinda Sanders.
Below is the text from her award announcement. You can study with Margaret every Monday and Wednesday at the Dardanelle - Yell County Library! Call us to learn more 479-310-5269
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Margaret is the creator of our successful driver's license classes, which are now hosted across five counties! In addition to helping over 15 people pass the test, she has also trained four new DL tutors who use her curriculum and best practices across our five county area. We even have a DL class in Spanish! Margaret’s Dardanelle class continues to boast a 100% pass rate. She has invited guest speakers to classes including, including a police officer, an insurance agent, a car seat safety professional. Most recently, her curriculum has been sent to people in other areas of the state who have been using it to help others.
Margaret steps in and helps however needed, including recruiting and training new volunteers and helping out with service projects such as reaching out to dentists around our area to get toothbrushes and toothpaste included in all our Service Day food pantry bags. She and her ESL student Rosie have become an inspiration for other tutor student pairs. They have become close friends and attend events together around the area. Their story inspires other to get involved in tutoring.
Margaret is a brilliant recruiter who is always quick to invite a new person to class and check in on them when they miss. And she’s also not afraid to tell us where we need to fix things, thus making sure we do the best job possible for the community.
Even when she is not doing her Americorps service hours, she’s always thinking about how to help others. She has expert-level couponing skills and knows when to go to Dollar General on penny days, coming back with a treasure trove of things we can use for students and tutors or in the garden.
Margaret’s tutoring is wonderful but what makes her really special is the way she checks in on her students. She wants to see people succeed and both challenges and encourages them along the way.
