When Justice Harth was 4 years old, she got her first surprise in the mail — a copy of Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham.” It wasn’t until her mother had finished reading the message inside, signed “Love, Daddy,” that she realized it was a gift from her father.
Her second surprise: a DVD recording of Marine Corps Sgt. Patrick Harth reading the book aloud. Even though he was in Afghanistan, Justice felt like her father was right there with her.
When Sgt. Harth was deployed to Afghanistan from 2011 to 2013, his family participated in United Through Reading, a nonprofit national program that uses videos of deployed military moms and dads reading children’s books to connect them with their kids back home. The children follow along with their own copy sent with each DVD.
Since its founding in 1989, the reading program has served nearly 2 million mothers, fathers and children, and distributes about 10,000 books per year. Its 500 volunteers make its global reach to military families possible. The volunteers are service members who manage recordings at their bases and military spouses who promote the program at home.
Alia Reese, 42, saw how families benefited from the program when she promoted it as a volunteer on military bases. Today she is the nonprofit group’s Marine Corps program manager, coordinating recording sites wherever Marines are stationed.
“Parents whose children grew up and moved out wished they knew about it sooner. Parents who still have children living at home were excited about which units were running the program and how they could participate. Everyone could see value in the program,” Ms. Reese said.
Deployed parents often miss out on their children’s milestones, like celebrating birthdays, learning how to ride a bike or losing a first tooth. United Through Reading tries to select books about such events to allow parents to feel connected with their kids in the experience.
“Going in the recording room was very emotional. It was the first time I disconnected from work,” said Sgt. Harth, 35. “When you’re deployed, you’re working for seven months straight with no days off. It pulls at your heartstrings because it’s the only time you’re connecting with your kids.”
His deployment to Afghanistan was especially difficult for Justice, now 9. While he was away, their dog Rammestein died. Justice cried in front of her friends, but never in front of her mother.
“She said she didn’t want to cry in front of me because she didn’t want to make me sad and she wanted to be strong for me,” said Natasha Harth, 34. “I started crying because, how can a 6- or 7-year-old even think like that?”
Her father’s recordings of Dr. Seuss lifted Justice’s spirits, and she watched her DVDs over and over until the next one came in the mail. Reading “Green Eggs and Ham,” “Hop on Pop” and “One Fish, Two Fish” with her father helped Justice develop her reading skills and reminded her how much he loved her.
In their 10 years of marriage, Sgt. and Mrs. Harth have moved four times, and they say each move and deployment has helped them mature and communicate better. For them, United Through Reading served as a form of communication that strengthened their family bond.
The Harths now live in Fairfax County, the first time they have been together for an extended time.
Sgt. Harth hasn’t made any new recordings since the family moved to Virginia in 2014, but United Through Reading has a special place in his children’s hearts.
“We still have the original books, and now they want to read the books and watch the DVDs. It’s nice to look back when we got the DVDs and the memories with that,” said Mrs. Harth, who is the current Armed Forces Insurance Marine Corps Spouse of the Year.
• Emily Kim can be reached at ekim@washingtontimes.com.
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