Book it! Nonprofit helps family connect with audio memento - Entertainment, Books - Navy Times

Book it! Nonprofit helps family connect with audio memento

On a stopover at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on his way back to Afghanistan just before Christmas, Army Sgt. Scott Greer nestled into a comfortable chair, opened “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” and began reading aloud.

As he read each line, a recorder in the book captured his voice for his 8-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son to listen to while he’s away. When he finished, a USO volunteer popped the book into a package to try to get it to his home in West Richland, Wash., in time for Christmas.

Greer made the recording as part of the San Diego-based United Through Reading’s military program, which lets parents record themselves reading a book to their children while they are deployed.

Greer says the books help when the kids are having a hard time because of his absence.

“They’ve got something to remind them of Dad,” he said.

Sally Ann Zoll, chief executive of United Through Reading, said the nonprofit, founded in 1989, started reaching out to military families during the 1991 Persian Gulf War but has seen swift growth in recent years. Since the program began, it has served more than 1 million people.

United Through Reading offers recording sites at about 130 military commands — about half of them Navy ships — and at about 80 USO centers around the world.