Soldiers read to connect with families at home

Courtesy Photo | Sgt. Teresa Wilt, a native of Temple, Texas, who is the personnel actions non-commissioned officer for Echo Co., 949th Brigade Support Battalion, 260th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 10th Sustainment Brigade, reads a book to be recorded for family members in Texas using the United Through Reading program, which is a partnership between the 260th CSSB and the United Service Organization.  

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

07.17.2009

Courtesy Story

3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq — "That is good," said the fish. "He's gone away, yes. But your mother will come. She will find this big mess." So goes the timeless story of "The Cat in the Hat" by Dr. Seuss. Children for generations have been captivated by the words of Dr. Seuss and other authors, taking them to places of fantasy and wonder. There is a program in Iraq that gives Soldiers the opportunity to reach across the ocean and be a part of their children's wonder and imagination.

United Through Reading is a program sponsored by the United Service Organizations, in partnership with the 260th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, Hunter Army Airfield, and Georgia that allows Soldiers the opportunity to share the gift of reading with their children. The 260th CSSB has a room set up in the chaplain's office, where Soldiers can go, read books while they are recorded on DVD, and send the video message back home to their children. There, families can watch the videos and share in the joy of reading, while giving them that feeling of being close even though they are divided by the Atlantic.

"This is a very good tool that we can use to communicate with our families back at Hunter," says Chaplain Sean Facchinello, a native of Richmond Hill, Ga., and the 260th CSSB Chaplain. As program coordinator, Facchinello, with the help of his assistant Pfc. Christopher Perry, a Virgin Islands native, provides through support from the USO, a room, decorated as if for a child, books, video camera and disks. Soldiers can pick from numerous books, all of which have been donated, to read to their children while being recorded. Soldiers are encouraged to be as animated and excited as possible, as if they were back home reading to their children. When the Soldiers are finished, Perry ensures that the disk is "locked out" so that it cannot be written on; he packages the materials and sends them home to the Soldier's family.

The 260th CSSB hopes to grow the program and influence other units to participate in such a worthy cause. By contacting publishing companies, local Savannah merchants and working with the Family Readiness Group to sponsor book drives, with help from the USO, the 260th hopes to continue to receive small donations of books for different reading and age levels, allowing everyone the chance to reach out and share in the joy of reading.

"Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him," quoted from Maya Angelou, rings so true and United through Reading gives Soldiers the tools necessary to continue that habit, while touching their children's hearts and minds back home. So, the future looks bright for the Soldiers of the 260th CSSB, which just might prod Dr. Seuss himself to quote something out of his book "Oh the Places You'll Go." "So ... be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea, you're off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So ... get on your way!"

• Date Taken: 07.17.2009
• Date Posted: 07.17.2009 10:51
• Story ID: 36480
• Location: BAGHDAD, IQ