Whether during playtime or at bedtime, reading is a powerful way for children to connect and bond with family members and other loved ones. But that’s not always possible — especially for those serving in the military.
Enter United Through Reading (UTR), a nonprofit dedicated to helping military families facing physical separation through the bond of reading. The organization estimates that there are more than 100,000 military parents who deploy in the U.S. Armed Forces each year, adding up to about 40 million bedtime stories that children miss out on. By recording service members reading books aloud, UTR provides their families back home with a sense of connection that’s reliable, repeatable, and always accessible — what if that sense of connection could be shared by those at home and on deployment in real time?
