There are several ways that you can help in the Read Me Home cause: 1) Donate new or gently used children's books, blank cassette tapes (new only, please), new or used portable cassette recorders (must use standard sized cassette tapes), and new AA batteries. Items may be sent via U.S. Postal Service to: Ramsey's Read Me Home c/o Debbra A. Johnson P. O. Box 4335 Greenville, DE 19807-0335 PLEASE NOTE: UPS and Federal Express will not deliver to P.O. boxes. If you prefer to ship via UPS or Fed Ex, please email us for an alternate shipping address. 2) Monetary donations are accepted to assist with shipping expenses, as well as purchasing much needed items for care packages (blank tapes, batteries, recorders, etc.). Please send check or money order, made payable to READ ME HOME, to the address listed above. You may also make a monetary donation via credit card by using the convenient PayPal payment method. If you have a PayPal account, you may click the PayPal link and complete your donation via credit card or from existing funds. PayPal payments should be sent to: ReadMeHome@comcast.net 3) If you know of service men or women currently serving away from home and would like to send them information about our program, please feel free to use the button below to send them this site. All they need to do is sign up and we will put them on the waiting list for a care package so that they, too, can share story time with their children across the miles! |
Young children know the comfort and closeness of having a parent read them a story. Read aloud story time is a tradition in many families and builds strong bonds between parents and children. Imagine being a young child and suddenly not having a parent home to read to you. Imagine being a parent who has chosen to serve your country and defend freedoms; yet in the process, is forced to be away from your child for long periods of time. Imagine not being able to share the loving routine of something as simple as a bedtime story. Read Me Home seeks to keep that bond alive ... if even across the miles. The mission of Read Me Home is to prepare 'story time across the miles' care packages to send to parents who are serving on long military deployments away from their children. Each care package contains a selection of new and gently used children's books and blank cassette tapes so that parents may read and record each book for their children while they are away from home. In some cases, portable cassette recorders can be donated to military personnel as well. For a child missing a parent, the sound of his/her voice on tape reading a favorite story book can be a huge comfort. For a parents spending long periods away from their children, the process of making the Read Me Home tapes can prove to be good for morale. |
There are several ways that you can help in the Read Me Home cause: 1) Donate new or gently used children's books, blank cassette tapes (new only, please), new or used portable cassette recorders (must use standard sized cassette tapes), and new AA batteries. Items may be sent via U.S. Postal Service to: Ramsey's Read Me Home c/o Debbra A. Johnson P. O. Box 4335 Greenville, DE 19807-0335 PLEASE NOTE: UPS and Federal Express will not deliver to P.O. boxes. If you prefer to ship via UPS or Fed Ex, please email us for an alternate shipping address. 2) Monetary donations are accepted to assist with shipping expenses, as well as purchasing much needed items for care packages (blank tapes, batteries, recorders, etc.). Please send check or money order, made payable to READ ME HOME, to the address listed above. You may also make a monetary donation via credit card by using the convenient PayPal payment method. If you have a PayPal account, you may click the PayPal link and complete your donation via credit card or from existing funds. PayPal payments should be sent to: ReadMeHome@comcast.net 3) If you know of service men or women currently serving away from home and would like to send them information about our program, please feel free to use the button below to send them this site. All they need to do is sign up and we will put them on the waiting list for a care package so that they, too, can share story time with their children across the miles! |
Men and women serving in all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces and who are deployed away from family for more than three months are eligible to sign up for a care package. Please email us with the following information: Your Name Branch of the Armed Forces Where You Are Stationed and For How Long Mailing Address (APO Information) Age and Gender of Each Child Please let us know if you have access to a cassette recorder* (*note - if you have access to a computer with writeable CD and can (and prefer) to record onto CD for this reason, let us know and we will send blank CD-RWs rather than cassettes) Care packages are sent out as they become available on a first-come, first-served basis. We will choose age-appropriate books from what we have available and will also keep books gender specific when necessary (for example, we will NOT send "Cinderella" if you are the parent of two boys). We will reply via email to let you know that we've received your request and we will let you know when a Read Me Home care package has been sent to you. |
Deb, Ramsey, and Frank would like to send a very special THANK YOU to Paula from Cactus Flower Graphics for the adorable web graphics she created exclusively for the Read Me Home program! |
Midi playing is "Fairy Dance" by Bruce De Boer Click on the heart to hear more of Bruce's original compositions |
I met Frank Mulcahy of the U.S. Navy online in August, 2005. Frank was the winning bidder on a set of used Dr. Seuss books that I had auctioned on eBay. He emailed me from Bagdhad where he had been deployed on a year-long assignment as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In his email he excitedly stated his intent for the books -- to read them onto cassette tapes for his two young children (Riley, age 5, and Frankie, age 3). His plan included sending each "Daddy Tape" (as his children now refer to them) along with the books so his children could follow along with each story. This was, in Frank's words, "so they don't forget what I sound like." For some reason, I couldn't get Frank and his idea out of my head. I am a former Pre-K teacher (which is why I had so many used books to auction off) and I still work exclusively with children. I even run a character-based reading enrichment program through my own business. I am a big supporter of reading fundamentals -- especially reading aloud to children. I am also one who finds myself becoming despondent when news around the world is not always good. War is something I've never quite understood, although I know that freedom isn't free and I fully support our troops in their efforts. Having a cause tends to help me feel like I can 'do something' during a time when I feel so helpless. I think this is why Frank's idea stayed with me. This was something I could do to make a difference ... no matter how small. This I could make sense of. I kept in touch periodically with Frank and he told me how wonderful the tapes had been for, not only his children, but his wife as well. When I finally approached him with the idea of "Read Me Home" he was readily available to assist me in whatever way he could. It is our hope that we can touch at least a few lives through this program. |
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