November is Month of the Military Family!

November 10, 2015

November is the Month of the Military Family, and at United Through Reading we want to take the opportunity to thank the families we serve for all they sacrifice during the year. It’s an honor to  serve these resilient families by keeping them connected through the read aloud experience. We’re happy when we can make a deployment or separation due to a military assignment a little bit easier for service members and their families at home.USO & UTR photograph

To celebrate Month of the Military Family, we are sharing a story from our program partner the USO. Over the last nine years, United Through Reading and the USO have joined forces to offer our program at select USO centers worldwide, and their story about Air Force Staff Sgt. Rock strikes a chord with us on the heels of United Through Reading being awarded the American Prize from the Library of Congress Literacy Awards Program. Staff Sgt Rock credits her participation in United Through Reading with instilling a love of reading in their daughter Guinevere. A special thanks to the USO for helping bring UTR to so many military families and for sharing the Rock family’s story.

To all military families, thanks for all you do for us. This month, we salute you and celebrate you.

From Deployment Separation to A Lifelong Love of Reading: The USO Connects A Military Family via United Through Reading

by Jessica Battaglia

Guinevere Rock may not remember every moment of reading them, but she knows why the books are special.

Her mom, Air Force Staff Sgt. Colleen Rock, read each of the books to her while she was deployed to Iraq in 2007-08 thanks to the USO’s partnership with United Through Reading.

When each book and accompanying DVD arrived at the Rocks’ Texas home, not only did 3-year-old Guinevere get to see her mom on DVD, but Colleen got to be involved in teaching her daughter how to read from half a world away.

“My husband said she would watch them every night before bed, just over and over and over again,” Rock said.

Rock learned about the USO-hosted United Through Reading Military Program after arriving in Iraq. She instantly recognized it was something that would help her stay connected with Guinevere.

Through the USO’s partnership with United Through Reading, service members can record themselves reading a book aloud to their child or loved one back home. The DVD recording is then packed with the book, and the USO mails the package home where child or loved one can then watch their deployed family member read them a story.

The USO hosts United Through Reading Military Program at more than 60 centers worldwide and has already sent nearly 10,000 recordings back to military families this year.

“I sent five or six [DVDs] because you could do one once a month,” Rock said. “[Guinevere] might remember little from that time, but she keeps the books and knows why they are special.

“I would write a little message in the book. … I think doing the program probably instilled that love of reading into her. Now she’s an avid reader. She’s in fourth grade and has a fifth-grade reading level.”

The Rocks have used other USO services over her 15 years in the military, too.

“Even now, I have my family meet me over by the USO,” Rock said. “Whenever we travel, we will have a snack before our flights.

“When I worked in readiness, we had [a delivery] very early in the morning. The USO hadn’t even opened yet. They came in came in and opened for us. I slept on one of the couches and when I woke up, I had a blanket over me.”

This story was originally posted by the USO.

 

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