Volunteers read across Ramstein

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Larissa Greatwood
  • 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany --  Ramstein Elementary school celebrated Read Across America in honor of the author Dr. Seuss's 112th birthday Feb. 29 through March 4.

Read Across America is an event sponsored by the National Education Association to promote reading. Organizations around the U.S. celebrate by reading Dr. Seuss books and dressing up as characters from his stories.

This year, the Ramstein Elementary School staff planned a week full of activities for the students to enjoy and understand the importance of reading.

The school participated with each day of the week having its own theme. On Monday, the students and staff dressed in green and wore frog hats to celebrate the leap year. Tuesday was sunglasses day, Wednesday was Dr. Seuss Day to celebrate the author's birthday, Thursday was mismatch socks and shoes day and Friday is 'Oh the Places You'll Go' where participants were encouraged to wear a shirt with the name of a location they've visited.

"We put on a lot of fun activities for the students to focus solely on reading," said Pam Garrett, Ramstein Elementary School special education teacher. "Our 'café' here is open all of this week and allows volunteers to come in and read to the students."

Second-grade students were given the opportunity to 'work' at the 'café' by playing roles as hosts, who seated the students, chefs who prepared bags of popcorn, servers to hand out bags of popcorn and a cleaning crew to clean the tables for the next class.

"The idea of the café is to make the students feel special and make it more of an experience," Garrett said. "The students who helped 'work' loved it because they felt important having a job. The students were given props [aprons, bowties, brooms and dustpans] so it was a lot of fun."

Volunteers ranged from military members, civilians, parents, middle school and high school students.

"It's great to give back to the community," said Tracie Barlow, volunteer at Ramstein Elementary School. "My son goes to school here, so to be able to help contribute to his and his peers' education is so rewarding. I think it's very important children have a well-rounded education, and reading is a huge part. Being able to read to them and hear them practice reading as well is so great."

Reading can be crucial to the learning process. Read Across America encourages growing minds and reading improvement.

"Because of the [advancement of technology], kids may be less apt to pick up a book," said Garrett. "We want them to know that books and your imagination take you places, not just video games. Our job is to teach them about how important reading is for their lives."