(San Diego, CA, May 28, 2020) — United Through Reading and Elva Resa Publishing announced a new partnership today to ensure service members with limited or no access to physical books can still remain connected to their families through the United Through Reading App and digital copies of Elva Resa books.
United Through Reading provides recording capabilities for military parents to make bedtime story videos their children can see and hear during deployment and other separations.
Current restrictions related to COVID-19 prevent military members in some locations from receiving physical books by mail. Elva Resa Publishing, which specializes in books for military families, has provided PDFs of three of their children’s books for service members to download and read via the United Through Reading App.
Additionally, Elva Resa donated 150 paperback books to United Through Reading for the service members’ children, so the children can hold the book and read along with their beloved service member, encouraging reading skills while maintaining important family connections.
“Stories connect us with our loved ones even when we are apart,” says Elva Resa’s publisher Karen Pavlicin-Fragnito, who experienced multiple deployments as a Marine Corps spouse. “We are so happy to be able to partner with United Through Reading to help kids make loving connections with their deployed parents through bedtime stories.”
The books donated by Elva Resa are Cedric and the Dragon by Elizabeth Raum, Military Life: Stories and Poems for Children by multiple authors, and The Wishing Tree by Mary Redman.
“We are grateful to partners like Elva Resa for helping us deliver our program in new and exciting ways to meet the needs of our service members during this difficult time,” said Sally Ann Zoll, CEO of United Through Reading. “Now more than ever, United Through Reading wants to ensure that military connected children have the comfort of shared storytime with the service members they love.”
As service members are activated to support the country’s response to COVID-19, face deployment extensions and time in quarantine ahead of upcoming deployments or upon returning, United Through Reading has been working with their partners and volunteers around the world to ensure that service members are able to access the program through their free and secure app.
If you are a service member and want to use the PDF books and the UTR app, please visit https://unitedthroughreading.org/elva-resa-pdf-books/
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About United Through Reading
United Through Reading is a non-profit 501(c)(3) public benefit organization founded 30 years ago. UTR’s mission is to unite military families facing physical separation by facilitating the bonding experience of reading aloud. United Through Reading offers service members the opportunity to be video-recorded reading storybooks to children at home which eases the stress of separation, maintains positive emotional connections, and cultivates a love of reading and early childhood literacy. At more than 200 recording locations worldwide at any given time, service members can access United Through Reading with their military unit, at select Armed Services YMCA locations and VA clinics, at community and military events, including Yellow Ribbon events, and now wherever they are with the new United Through Reading App. Since its inception, more than 2.4 million military members and their families have benefited from the program.
About Elva Resa Publishing
Elva Resa Publishing is an award-winning independent publishing company that has been creating books and resources for and about the military community for more than twenty years. Most of Elva Resa’s writers and team members are military family members with first-hand understanding of the challenges of military life. Elva Resa partners with organizations around the world to deliver helpful resources to military families through partner programs and its online store, MilitaryFamilyBooks.com. The company’s mission is to make a positive difference in people’s lives. Visit ElvaResa.com to learn more.