Photo By Jim Hughes | Command Sgt. Maj. Christopher T. Doss, Fort Rucker garrison command sergeant major,...... read more read more
FORT RUCKER, Ala. -- More than 100 Fort Rucker children and parents attended the National Read Aloud Day event Feb. 1 at the U.S. Army Aviation Museum.
Col. Keith Haskin, U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence G-5 director, and Command Sgt. Maj. Christopher T. Doss, Fort Rucker garrison command sergeant major, read books to the audience at the event hosted by the Army Aviation Museum Foundation, United Through Reading and the Military Child Education Coalition.
Haskin read “Friendly Fliers,” while Doss read “Today I Will Fly!” and “Ada Twist, Scientist,” and the command sergeant major said he was honored to take part in the event.
“I am a father of six, so I have spent a significant amount of time reading to my children,” he said. “Fostering a love of reading in children is important to their future scholastic success.”
And their future scholastic success is important because children are the future, Leah Dunkle, executive coordinator for the Army Aviation Museum Foundation, said.
“Kids are important to the foundation, so the more kids we can get inside this space to talk to them – especially when they have Soldiers reading to them – and allow them to see Soldiers and aircraft, the better,” she said. “Thank you to everyone who came out to the event because it made it amazing – I hope we do it again very, very soon. And when we do it again, come back and invite your friends.”
The other organizers were thrilled with the success of the event, too, including Molly Haskin, director of Army, and Air Force and Space Force programs for United Through Reading.
“I’m so thrilled that we had such a great turnout, and so grateful to the museum and the foundation for hosting this terrific event,” she said. “I think it shows that Fort Rucker really does want to read together.”
United Through Reading offers servicemembers the opportunity to video record themselves reading to any special child in their life, and also offers a free and secure app to help provide hundreds of high-quality children’s books for ages 0-18, Haskin said.
“We’re deliberate in our book choice because we want to make sure we’re representing our military community – the way they look, the experiences they share and the languages they speak,” she said. “Servicemembers can go to website and request up to three free books at a time. We’ll mail it to them and we encourage them to download and use the app to video record themselves reading to their child. The app is fun and the recording comes through like a movie, not just a recording, and can be stored on devices, downloaded on laptops and cast to smart TVs. We really want military children to have story time with their servicemember whenever they want it -- story time on demand and not necessarily on the servicemembers schedule.”
Children also receive a physical copy of the book being read, as well. “Literacy is the foundation of everything and having that physical book to read is so important for a child’s development,” Haskin added.
Jennifer Nelson, Military Child Education Coalition community coordinator, said the event exceeded her goals.
“We work to educate, collaborate and advocate for our military-connected families to address the educational issues that are unique for our highly mobile families,” she said. “Our mission is to help every child become work-, life- and college-ready whenever they choose to be by the time they graduate from high school.
“We offer many different programs and resources to help do that, and they’re all free of charge,” she added.
For more information on the Army Aviation Museum Foundation, visit https://www.armyaviationmuseum.org/.
For more on United Through Reading, visit https://unitedthroughreading.org/.
For more on the Military Child Education Coalition, visit https://www.militarychild.org/.
| Date Taken: | 02.01.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 02.14.2023 10:29 |
| Story ID: | 438432 |
| Location: | FORT RUCKER, ALABAMA, US |
| Web Views: | 72 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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