GILROY
– As a young woman, Judy Walko felt drawn to California. Growing
up in Pittsburgh, Penn., she yearned for the great outdoors.
GILROY – As a young woman, Judy Walko felt drawn to California. Growing up in Pittsburgh, Penn., she yearned for the great outdoors.
At the age of 26, she spent a month traveling across the country, exploring and camping in the national parks. California was her last stop, and she felt like she had come home. Two years later she made the move to San Francisco.
”California is a state of mind,” Walko said. ”I love the ethnic diversity and the open-minded attitudes – and the weather, of course.”
Walko met her husband, Bob Goldman, in San Francisco, and over time they moved south down the peninsula and eventually found affordable housing and a charmed way of life in Gilroy.
”We wanted to get away from the city and find natural beauty,” she said. ”We’re so lucky in the area to be near the ocean and the mountains. The first time I saw the Pacific Ocean I was in awe. It’s had even more of an impact on me than the Grand Canyon.”
Walko and her husband have lived in Gilroy for 13 years, and they hope they will never have to leave the place they’ve learned to call home.
”It’s very similar to the town I grew up in near Pittsburgh. It’s a small city but not smothering; I know people but we still have anonymity,” she said. ”It’s not a back water like people from north of us believe, it’s the tip of the Bay Area and people are open-minded and kind. I have so many friends and colleagues.”
Walko works as a social worker and has a teaching credential. She always has been drawn to non-profit work and looks to her family’s background for her dedication to helping others.
”My grandparents were peasants from Eastern Europe,” she said. ”They came through Ellis Island from what is now Slovakia. They were not very materialistic people, and they valued education. My father was a blue-collar worker and my mom stayed at home. They lived through the depression; I learned to share what you have with others.”
The first thing she did when she moved to Gilroy was to find out if the library needed any volunteers. She joined the Friends of the Library and worked on getting “Measure A” passed, as well as helping to raise money. Through her volunteer work she became interested in being a tutor for the reading program. Soon she was spending more than six hours a week volunteering as a tutor. When an opening came available at Vision Literacy she applied and was hired as the program’s Associate Manager for South County.
She has been working at Vision Literacy in Gilroy since 1993.
”I like working with adults,” she said. ”They are motivated to learn and they want to be there, and its fun. It’s a chance to be creative and to make positive changes, and it’s a great way top connect to people.”
Vision Literacy helps people fill in the gaps of their reading, writing and speaking skills. The focus is on literacy development. The program is run in small groups, and they also take the program out to the community with programs at the Gilroy Apartments.
”No one is totally illiterate,” Walko points out. ”But for a variety of reasons people have fallen through the cracks and their education looks like Swiss cheese. At Vision Literacy, we help fill in those holes. I was helped by a lot of people, and now it’s my turn to give back. I’m so lucky I can help.”
