Meet Alferd

I was recently touched by the following article.

70-Year-Old Man Goes Back To 1st Grade

Man Promised Mother He Would Learn To Read

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- Students in a Missouri elementary school can't stop talking about their 70-year-old classmate. Alferd Williams is drawing national attention for returning to school because he never learned how to read. Students in his first-grade class in St. Joseph said they enjoyed talking and working with their unusual classmate."He is really smart and he really helps me a lot," one unidentified student said. Williams earned a living for his family working in the fields. He never got the chance to get an education. He said he promised his mother that he would one day learn to read. Williams, who lives in a friend's laundry room, has traveled a lot by Greyhound bus. He said he never knew why passengers stood in different lines until he could read the names of the destination cities above each line. The school has set up a fund to help Williams financially.To help out, call Edison Elementary School at 816-671-4110.

Distributed by Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc.

Mr. Williams was on the Ellen DeGeneres show today. He was handed a check for $10,000 to go toward the building of a home on a piece of property he has owned for years. Alferd's teacher, Mrs. Hamilton, was handed a check for $2500 in order to purchase books for her school's library. She was also given 26 new HP Notebooks.