USO Program Keeps Troops Connected

The United Service Organizations is launching a pilot partnership program with the Family Literacy Foundation to let troops send video tapes of them reading aloud from children’s books. The United Through Reading of the Family Literacy Foundation is designed to have children feel the security of caring adult relationships and develop a love of reading through the experience. The USO will tape participating military members as they read a children’s book aloud, and will mail a copy of the book, along with the digital video disk or videotape and instructions, to families back home. The parent or caregiver can then record or photograph the child as the child is watching the tape and following along, and send the child’s reaction to the deployed service member. The pilot program began Nov. 14 at USO centers in Qatar; Kuwait; Camp Casey, Korea; Keflavik, Iceland; Mayport, Fla.; and St. Louis, Mo.