Travis hosts Books on Bases

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Nicole Leidholm
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  The Blue Star Families returned to Travis for the fourth Books on Bases at the Mitchell Memorial Library June 4.

More than 250 children and their families attended that evening for free books, crafts and snacks.

Blue Star Families is a nonprofit organization founded by military spouses that is committed to supporting, connecting and empowering military families.

"We're one of the largest chapter-based organizations supporting military families and have a chapter located here at Travis," said Jenny Felsen, Blue Star Families Travis chapter director. "We provide programs and resources to support military families, such as our Books on Bases program, Blue Star Museums, Operation Appreciation as well as our Caregivers Empowering Caregivers workshop, our Spouse Employment Toolkit and our Everyone Serves Deployment Handbook."

Books on Bases, which is geared toward readers in elementary and middle school, is a program that strives to promote literacy in military children by providing them with brand new books. The program happens quarterly on base.

"To date, this program has provided over 2,500 books to children at Travis," Felsen said.

This quarter, Disney partnered with Blue Star Families to donate more than 230 books to military families.

In the past, books also were donated to the base elementary schools and the Airman and Family Readiness Center.

"Books on Bases helps draw young readers into the library," said Marie Ludwig, Mitchell Memorial Library director. "We promote the program which in turn encourages reading."

The program is open to all military families of any branch. All they have to do is sign up at the event for accountability.

"This quarter, with it being the end of the school year, Books on Bases is also tying in to summer reading," Ludwig said. "We're able to advertise our summer reading programs when young readers come in to get books."

This year's Department of Defense sponsored theme is Paws to Read. Registration for the summer reading program started June 9 with the program starting June 16.

With the summer reading program starting, Ludwig said the library's own program, Paws for Reading, which is usually the first Thursday of every month, will run every Thursday over the summer months.

The library also has Morning StoryTime for toddler aged children every Tuesday at 10 a.m.

Individuals are encouraged to become a member by registering for free at www.bluestarfam.org.

"Members will get free newsletters about free events in the area or just to keep them in the 'know,' " Felsen said. "We also help military families with Blue Star Careers. We utilize oDesk to help dependents get jobs for large corporations. Plus, the more members we have, the more grants we receive to provide these programs and resources to our military families. We are always looking for volunteers to help with events as well."

The next Blue Star Families event will be from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the fourth of July Bash at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo. There will be character visits and an-all-you-can-eat picnic served between 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The picnic will include hamburgers, hot dogs, sides and fountain drinks.

The cost is $36.99 per person and includes lunch and free parking for first 100 people. Regular admission is $64 and doesn't include parking or meal. Children 2 and under are free.

To purchase tickets to the event visit http://bit.ly/BSFSixFlags.

For more information on the Blue Star Families Travis Chapter, email Felsen at jfelsen@bluestarfam.org. For more information on the Paws to Read summer Program of the Paws for Reading, call Ludwig at 424-4940.