United Through Reading Provides Army Families with Story Telling Ability from AUSA Show, Sponsored by Engility Corp
October 3, 2016
WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 3, 2016 – Maisy Mouse, Candlewick Press’ popular children’s story book character, will be on hand at this year’s United Through Reading (UTR) booth (#2224) to support service members who wish to read and record a Maisy Mouse story live from the 2016 Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting and Exposition. Service members will receive their video recording as a DVD to share with their families.
“United Through Reading makes the distance between service members and their families during deployment seem a little less far, while encouraging literacy skills and language development,” said UTR CEO Sally Zoll. “We are grateful to the Engility Corporation, who is sponsoring our booth and providing Engility volunteers to help our members of the military record their UTR videos.”
“Offering our men and women in uniform the opportunity to make a connection with their families through the read-aloud experience live from the show is giving our military members, particularly those who may be deploying soon, a meaningful chance to stay connected with their children and families,” said Engility President and COO John Hynes.
Engility is sponsoring and volunteering at the UTR booth at AUSA, so Army service members can reduce the emotional distance between them and their families at the show with a recorded reading of a book. United Through Reading is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) public benefit organization dedicated to uniting U.S. military families who face physical separation by facilitating the bonding experience of reading aloud together. In 2015, with the help of 13,260 volunteer hours, United Through Reading served nearly 100,000 beneficiaries, at 262 recording locations around the world distributing more than 10,000 children’s books to military children.
United Through Reading has been attending AUSA since 2010. This is the first year that Maisy Mouse, who was recently a big hit at the National Book Festival, has joined UTR at AUSA.
About United Through Reading
United Through Reading is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) public benefit organization that has been in service for 27 years; its mission is to unite military families facing physical separation by facilitating the bonding experience of reading aloud together. United Through Reading offers service members the opportunity to be video-recorded reading storybooks to children at home which eases the stress of separation, maintains positive emotional connections, and cultivates a love of reading and early childhood literacy. At more than 200 recording locations worldwide, service members can read to the children who are special to them on military bases and outposts, deployed U.S. Navy ships, U.S. Coast Guard cutters and at select USOs. Since its inception, nearly 2 million military parents, spouses, and children have benefited from the program. For more information, visit unitedthroughreading.org and follow us on Twitter @UTR4Military and Facebook at facebook.com/unitedthroughreading.