Collecting Storybooks for Soldier's Kids
Adrienne Nettles - Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Mar 04, 2008
COLLEYVILLE, TX -- For the past month, Stephanie Oyler hasn't been spending her free time like most 11-year-olds.
The Colleyville Elementary fifth-grader is collecting children's books for soldiers who participate in the USO Dallas/Fort Worth Airport office's United Through Reading program.
"I like helping people in my spare time, and I thought helping soldiers was a good way to give back," said Oyler, 11.
The program provides soldiers being sent off to war a chance to read books to their young children on video before being deployed, said Rhenda White-Brunner, director of USO D/FW, a not-for-profit organization serving military families.
The video and book are then sent to the soldier's family, she said.
The program's popularity has grown since its inception in August 2006, reaching about 500 soldier families in January, White-Brunner said. Because books are sent off to families in the program, there is a constant need for books, she said.
"Every day, we're giving away books," she said "It's real important what [Stephanie is] doing by contributing to the ongoing needs of the program."
Stephanie has handed out fliers with the hope of getting people interested in donating books, her mother, Toni Oyler, said. Her daughter also has visited a reading room for soldiers at the airport, she said.
"Watching the soldiers come out of the reading room and their eyes full of tears really had a huge impact on her," Oyler's mother said.
Stephanie started her project in February and had donated 1,266 books as of Thursday, far beyond her initial goal. Her new goal is to collect 2,900 books for soldiers by Dec. 31, she said.
Stephanie said there has been an outpouring of support from students and parents, but she hopes more people will get involved.
"People have been really nice," she said.
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