826 Michigan: A profile

There is a sign on the door of 115 East Liberty Street that says “Robot Supply and Repair” but despite the fact that people sometimes mistakenly bring in their roombas this is actually a tutoring center for children called 826 Michigan, a chapter of a national tutoring organization. Inside, you can buy robot cough syrup, a replacement larynx for your robot, or a robot heart. 826 Michigan even sells some actual robot supplies because it was “depressing for actual robot enthusiasts who came in looking for real robot parts,” explained Amy Summerton, the programs director, who has also played in a band and been the editor of a literary magazine.

Past the robot store, there is a room with purple walls, a yellow couch, four jam-packed bookshelves, and wooden tables.  And on five o’clock on Thursday November 19th, the room was also full of tutors and students, the ratio about one-to-one. Despite the serious work that was going on, one student calculating “2 to the n” while another was searching for slant rhymes for the word “enough,” the atmosphere was playful.  A student stuck his own nametag to his tutor’s shirt, both on the front and on the back, so everyone could see his tutor’s new name, from both directions.

826 National was founded seven years ago in San Francisco by Dave Eggers, the author of among other books A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which was nominated as a finalist for the Pulitzer in 2000. He founded 826 from the profit he made from A Heartbreaking Work. Eggers founded 826 because he wished for an organization that would “allow caring people to devote their time to tutoring,” said Summerton. The organization is named after the address of the original tutoring center on 826 Valencia Street. The building that Dave Eggers chose for 826 was on a street where there was a stipulation that each building had to have a commercial storefront, so Eggers decided that his tutoring center would double as a Pirate Supply Store. Each of the seven chapters of the organization has continued this tradition with a whimsical storefront of its own. Dave The storefronts not only raise money for the programs -- all of which are free -- but also add to the atmosphere of creativity.

826 Michigan was founded in 2005 and moved downtown in October 2007. The services 826 offers are especially important for teachers in Ann Arbor now that the school millage, a property tax that would have provided additional funding for public schools, did not pass. Summerton said, “Class sizes are large and it is important for teachers to know that adults will come in and help kids who are behind, or grade papers, or do anything at all.”  Many students need help with their homework and it is often too much responsibility for the teachers to handle on their own. Lucky the volunteers at 826 have signed on to help.

826 Michigan is almost entirely volunteer run. The organization runs onsite tutoring programs but tutors also volunteer at West Middle School progams in Ypsilanti. The volunteers range in age from eighteen to seventy. They include college students, working professionals, and PhD candidates.  Yet despite this diversity, the volunteers at 826 seem to share a certain like-mindedness.

“There are some 826 romances and many 826 friendships,” said Summerton, who met her boyfriend here. What the volunteers all have in common is that not only do they want to help kids learn but they also are committed to fostering their creativity. One student, bored with his history homework, showed off some of his sketches to his tutor. She looked at them admiringly and told him that if he wants to be an artist he can, even if his dad doesn’t want him to.

When I left I said goodbye to the trendy teenager in hipster glasses and a lab coat working the register at the robot store. An old woman just coming in held the door open for me.  Outside, I watched a mother and her son walk home together from tutoring. I walked home by myself thinking about Nina Freter, a 10th grader I had just met poring over her earth science textbook.

“I like the people,” she said. “You can talk to them. Because they know stuff. And can talk about the world.”
I walked home calmer, knowing that there is a place like 826 where you can buy a larynx for your robot and learn about the world.