Over 1,000 classrooms from preschool through high school seniors across the country will be participating in the United Through Reading Story Time with a Service Member event beginning on Veterans Day, Nov. 11 through Friday, Nov. 15. United Through Reading will send a Veterans Day video package to participating schools with a library of video recordings of service members reading an entertaining and educational age-appropriate story to classrooms across the country.
The annual Story Time with a Service Member event demonstrates the organization’s commitment to facilitate the bonding experience between distant serving military members and their loved ones, and members of the community, through video-recorded stories. In celebration of Veterans Day, the event creates tangible experiences amongst service members and thousands of students through the fulfilling experience of reading aloud. Story Time with a Service Member gives students the opportunity to honor America’s veterans and gain an authentic understanding of the role military service members play in their communities and throughout the country.
San Diego-based United Through Reading Director of Marketing and Communications Melanie Sheridan is a military spouse and mother. She said the organization just celebrated 35 years, beginning on the piers of San Diego with founder Betty Mohlenbrock with a VHS recorder, recording sailors before they deployed.
“We have evolved over the years and now we have an app. It is a free app where service members, or anybody with a military affiliation, active-duty, reserve, retirees, and veterans, can use our app to video record themselves reading a story to anyone they feel is important in their lives. Then we facilitate getting that video back to that family member, and send a free copy of the book itself, so they can follow along while they are watching that video. This is a way for us to keep military family members connected through any type of separation. It does not have to be a deployment. It can be long working hours. With retirees, we have grandparents who want to talk with their grandchildren in other states,” she said.
Sheridan said keeping servicemembers and their families connected is a bonding time for all.
For more information on how to become involved with Story Time with a Service Member, visit www.unitedthroughreading.org/resources/veterans-day-storytime-with-a-service-member/
