- [Johnny] Da-da.
- Da-da?
- [Woman 1] United Through Reading was
founded 28 years ago in San Diego by a
navy spouse who experienced her husband's
deployment to Vietnam, and when he
returned, her two-year-old daughter didn't
recognize him. And so,
she saw the need to connect our families
who are separated through
deployments in military separations. What
United Through Reading does is really
simple. We provide the military serviceman
or woman the opportunity to be
video-recorded reading a storybook. And
then we send the video and the book home
to the family.
- [Ella] Last year was when Zack was
deployed. It was 2016 and,
you know, Gabriel was five, Sara was two,
and I just had a baby.
So, we definitely needed a way to keep in
communication with Zack while he was on
the ship. Every military unit,
especially ones that deploy, will have
a FRO, which is a Family Readiness
Officer, and they're in charge of making
sure that the families are taken care of
and are provided with adequate resources
to survive the deployment. I happen to
work or be a mentor volunteer for LINKS,
which is the Lifestyles Insight,
Networking, Knowledge, and Skills class,
which is a way to indoctrinate
families into this lifestyle.
They always mention United Through Reading
as one of the resources to survive.
- [Zack] I was aware of the
program. And it's funny because I actually
got an email from Ella saying, "Hey, the
Family Readiness Officer says that they
have a posted-up demo library, go down
there and sign up." So I did.
- [Gabriel] And he is silly and
he makes funny faces.
- [Sara] I'm like... I'm sending a video.
- It's more of a special time I do United
Through Reading. I communicate to them
because I don't see them every day. And
so, that's also what
helps me really get into it
because that's my chance to speak to the
kids. You know, it's important
for me to do that to
stay connected, especially now
that Johnny, our youngest,
of his youngest years, it's kind of helped
refresh, "Here's Daddy,
Daddy's still here."
- Da-da.
- Daddy. He sees Da-da.
- Da-da!
- [inaudible] hi, Sara,
Jonathan...
- [inaudible] doing it. But it's not
him. I just sent him boat.
- Sometimes Daddy has to deploy, which
means he goes on a trip for the military.
And when Daddy deploys,
he'd be gone for a while...
- It gets lonely without Zack here as the
dad and as my husband.
So whenever we get something like that in
the mail, that's an awesome,
an awesome day. Maybe people wouldn't know
this, but you cannot have your iPhone in
the ship, because you're in the middle of
wherever you are, and your cell phone will
not work. So, he can't take selfies, and
he can't take pictures,
and I cannot... I don't get to see what
he's doing where he is.
I don't get to know that, so when I get to
see a video of him,
you know, on the ship, in that little
room, even though it's a little room,
I get, "Oh my Gosh! That's awesome to see
a live, well, a sort of live video
of him."
- We're always asked how people can
support United Through Reading,
and I think it's important for everyone to
know that we are 100% supported by
individuals and family foundations and
corporations. We don't ask for or receive
any government support.
- When your husband's deployed, wife's
deployed, just...you shouldn't...
It's a really stressful time. It can be...
The deployments are either 6 months,
12 months, 9 months, you really
need all the help you can get,
all the support and United Through Reading
is a great example of an organization that
supports military families.
- Da-da!
