Huntsville Center employees volunteered to participate in Team Redstone’s local “Read Across America” reading initiative March 1.
Read Across America is an initiative on reading created by the National Education Association.
One part of the project is National Read Across America Day, an observance in the U.S. held on the school day closest to March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss.
Center employees, Betina Johnson and Robert Jackson, Engineering; Lori Cordell-Meikle, Lu Ann Poniatowski, Teresa Peterson-Evans, Internal Review; Stephanie Tucker, Resource Management; Rebecca Vucinaj, Nicole Boone, Small Business; Lydia Tadesse, Andora Dothard, Center Contracting; Barbara Tolliver, Business Management; Raul Alonso, Installation Support and Programs Management; Kay Sommerkamp, Office of Counsel; and Debra Valine, Scott Farrow, Public Affairs read books to students at Montview and Rolling Hills Elementary schools in Huntsville, Ala. They were welcomed to the Title 1 schools by Mindy Thomas and Tameka McGill, reading coaches at the Montview and Rolling Hills, respectively.
Each reader was guided to a class of excited children anxiously waiting to hear books like “The Lorax,” “The Cat in the Hat,” “Horton Hears a Who,” or “The Foot Book.”
Once a book was read, students were encouraged to ask the employee about what Huntsville Center accomplishes and the impact reading had on their career.
The outreach team read to more than 1,250 kindergarten through fifth grade students in 50 classrooms during the two 90-minute reading sessions at each school.
Thomas said Huntsville Center provided the largest number of volunteers for Montview Elementary School. She invited Center employees to sign up as a volunteer to read to the students during their spare time. Thomas said the school is always in need of volunteers for education outreach opportunities.
School administrators said they were pleased by the number of volunteers at the school and the events success.
“We are very appreciative that you are here to read to our students today,” said Towana Carter, Montview Elementary School principal. “We are honored by your volunteerism. We knew we could count on you (Corps of Engineers) to help our school.”