Huntsville Center employees volunteered to participate in Team Redstone’s local “Read Across America” reading initiative March 3.
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.
Huntsville Center Commander, Col. Robert Ruch and Lt. Col. William Burruss, deputy commander, joined Center employees, Patrick Haas, Neal Graham, Chemical Demilitarization; Kimberly Edwards, Lee Shockley, Engineering; Jerrica Thompson, Carla McNeal, Resource Management; Cyndee Oleyte, Kristal Huinker, Amber Lee, Ordnance and Explosives, Andora Dothard, Abel Fuller, Center Contracting; Barbara Tolliver, Business Management; Laura Quick, Elizabeth Jackson, Joy Jackson, Installation Support and Programs Management; Kay Sommerkamp, Office of Counsel; and Scott Farrow, Public Affairs read books to students at University Place and Highlands Elementary schools in Huntsville, Ala.
They were welcomed to the Title 1 schools by Susan DeCarlo and Anne Mixon, reading coach and library media specialist at University Place and Highlands, respectively.
Each reader was guided to a class of excited children anxiously waiting to hear books like “Daisy-Head Mayzie," "Green Eggs and Ham,” “The Cat in the Hat,” or “Fox in Socks.”
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 1019 pre-kindergarten through fifth grade students in 57 classrooms during the two 90-minute reading sessions at each school.
DeCarlo said she was pleased that Huntsville Center volunteers read to the entire student body at her school. She invited Center employees to come back during their spare time to read to students. DeCarlo said the school is always in need of volunteers for reading initiatives and other education outreach opportunities.
School administrators said they were pleased by the number of volunteers at the school and the events success.
“We are very thankful that you are here to read to our students today,” said Dr. John Humphrey, Highlands Elementary School principal. “Our faculty and students have benefited from the visit. You'll be hearing from us again.”