An Open Book : Despite the Cost, Businesses Offer World of Reading to Illiterates : Literacy: People who can’t read in Orange County number in the thousands, but opportunities to provide that basic need are growing.

As his young daughters cuddled next to him one recent evening, Geno Godinet read them bedtime stories in a slow, deliberate tone. A year ago, Godinet used to recite the same fairy tales by memory because he couldn’t read.

Then, the 40-year-old elevator repairman decided to do something about his reading problem.

After nearly one year of weekly tutoring sessions, Godinet not only can read stories to his daughters but can also perform the everyday reading and writing tasks that he needs on his job.

“More and more reading is required,” Godinet said.

There are an estimated 23 million adults in the United States who are illiterate--and several hundred thousand of them in Orange County. Studies have found that 15% of the nation’s work force is functionally illiterate.

For businesses, the cost of re-educating illiterate workers is staggering. In 1988, private corporations nationally spent $25 billion on programs to teach basic reading and writing skills to their employees, according to the National Alliance of Business in Los Angeles.

And, according to a report from the Literacy Volunteers of America, 99% of all workers perform some reading-related work each day. To keep pace with the job, they need to read an average of 113 minutes each day.

Thus, Orange County companies have been taking steps to address the literacy problem.

Fourteen local companies, for example, contributed money to the Newport Beach Public Library literacy program and took part in the first Business Spelling Bee for Literacy in Newport Beach last Friday. The spelling bee, sponsored by the library, is intended to boost awareness about illiteracy in the county. Organizers hope to make this an annual event.

Lucinda Zirkelbach, assistant account executive for InterCommunications Inc. in Newport Beach, says the spelling bee “is one excellent way of getting the word out to companies that there is a (literacy) problem.”

Some businesses are striving to improve their employees’ reading and writing skills by setting up in-house literacy programs.

Ricoh Electronics, a Tustin-based electronics manufacturer, started a English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) program in late 1988. More than 80% of Ricoh’s 1,300 employees are minority workers, most of whom are Latino. A company official estimated that more than 20% of the firm’s employees are illiterate.

The ESL program is free to Ricoh and its employees, with the cost of the program paid by the state Department of Education. It is offered as an extended course at Rancho Santiago Community College.

About 100 Ricoh employees already have completed the literacy program. And the Japanese-owned firm is so pleased with the results that it plans to continue the program, said Rino Zaccuri, a company spokesman.

“The classes are free to employees, and the students learn skills in chart reading and inventory. The classes also are geared toward survival skills: banking, reading traffic signs and everyday things (such as in) grocery stores,” Zaccuri said.

Jo Caines, director of community relations for KOCE-TV in Huntington Beach and coordinator of the county chapter of Project Literacy U.S., a national literacy program, said that businesses are becoming more aware of the problem.

“They are realizing that if their employees are illiterate, it definitely affects the economy,” she said.

Besides the company-run programs, there are more than 70 other literacy services throughout the county, sponsored by libraries, churches, schools, nursing homes and other organizations, according to Keri Gee Barnett, chairperson of the Literacy Communications Coalition, a literacy project coordinated by the Public Relations Society of America.

“There are many (people) falling through the cracks who don’t read. We hope that anybody who is not an effective reader will know there are literacy providers in the county. All they have to do is call for help,” Barnett advised.

Another project is the Literacy Is for Everyone (LIFE) lab at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. The lab, designed to teach people to read and write, is scheduled to open in March. Funded by contributions from businesses, the lab has received $72,000 in cash and $14,000 in computer equipment from 12 companies. About $12,000 more is needed to get the program under way, said Douglas C. Bennett, executive director of the Orange Coast College Foundation.

Godinet, the elevator repairman, turned to the Newport Beach Public Library’s literacy program because he wanted to improve his career options. He realized that, without the ability to read, he would be unable to complete even a simple task, such as filling out an employment application.

For most of his career, Godinet, who works for Montgomery Elevator Co. in Irvine, managed to get along by learning his skills through on-the-job-training. But he says it is getting harder and harder for people like him to find jobs.

Godinet, who now reads at about a sixth-grade level, said he is no longer embarrassed about his reading problem. But he remembers how, in the past, he used to fear that his co-workers would discover his illiteracy.

“At work, there were many instances when I would be humiliated,” he recalled. “When I would make the lunch run, the other workers would tell me to write down the order list, but I couldn’t write. People caught on and started making fun of me. They would ask, ‘You don’t know how to read?’ It got to be a joke.

“I don’t feel all that bad now because I am doing something about it,” he said. “There are times in your life when you just have to put things behind you. This may help someone else in the same situation and maybe they will do things better for themselves.”