Engineers share love of reading, conduct book drive for local students

U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville
Published March 6, 2015
Huntsville Center Commander, Col. Robert Ruch, shares fist bump with student as he hands out free books at Rolling Hills Elementary School.

Huntsville Center Commander, Col. Robert Ruch, shares fist bump with student as he hands out free books at Rolling Hills Elementary School.

Huntsville Center Commander, Col. Robert Ruch, joined Huntsville Center employees to read books to students at Rolling Hills Elementary School March 2 as part of National Read Across America Day.

Huntsville Center Commander, Col. Robert Ruch, joined Huntsville Center employees to read books to students at Rolling Hills Elementary School March 2 as part of National Read Across America Day.

Several Huntsville Center employees volunteered to participate in Team Redstone’s local “Read Across America” reading initiative March 2.

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, joined 13 Center employees to read books to students at Rolling Hills Elementary School in Huntsville, Alabama.

Each reader was guided to a class of children waiting to hear employees read books like “The Foot Book," "Green Eggs and Ham,” “The Cat in the Hat,” or “Hop on Pop."

Once a book was read, students were encouraged to ask the employee about their jobs at Huntsville Center and the impact reading had on their career.

The outreach team read to more than 400 prekindergarten through sixth grade students in 25 classrooms during the event.

The Huntsville Center workforce also organized a book drive in conjunction with the reading event. Their goal was to collect 100 new and gently used books to give to the students. The team surpassed this goal by collecting 450 books, enough to provide one book to the entire student body and donate the 24 remaining books to the school's library. Ruch and Center volunteers distributed the books to students during the reading event.

Center volunteer Nelda Bradford said she enjoyed participating. She felt like she was giving back to the students.

"I am thankful for the opportunity to read for the children at Rolling Hills School. My husband and I both read in the classrooms and donated two books toward the book drive. It was tons of fun," Bradford said.

Tamika McGill, curriculum specialist at Rolling Hills said she was pleased 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. McGill said the school is always in need of volunteers for reading initiatives and other education outreach opportunities.

"We are pleased by the number of volunteers at the school and the events success. The faculty and staff of Rolling Hills Elementary School would like to thank you for all you have done to make Read Across America Day a success. We really appreciate all of the volunteers that came to read to our students. They were great and the students enjoyed every minute of it! They loved the silly hat too," McGill said. We are so grateful to have such great friends! The students were so excited to receive the books. Many of them brought them back to school the next day to read during their free time. Our faculty and students have benefited from the visit. You'll be hearing from us again!”