Marine Corps Base Quantico -- “Will you read me another book?” Nellie, a student in the pre-K program at Crossroads Elementary School aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico asked.

She had just listened to a student in Sara Rohde’s grade 1-2 class read her Plenty of Penguins, a rhyming book filled with facts about everyone’s favorite tuxedoed birds. The older girl read the words and then turned the book around to show Nellie the pictures, just as she’d probably seen her teachers do during years of story time.

The students were participating in Reading Buddies Day, one of a week-long series of events at the elementary school celebrating Read Across America, Mar. 14-18. Created by the National Education Association, Read Across America is an annual reading motivation and awareness program held to coincide with the Mar. 2 birthday of beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss.

“The goal of Read Across America is to build a nation of readers,” said Mary Ziek, librarian at Crossroads. “The focus is to motivate children to read through events, partnerships, and reading resources.”

Ziek said that Quantico schools have participated in Read Across America since its inception in 1998.

For Reading Buddies Day, older students at the school were paired with students in the pre-K program to read books aloud.

“They get a chance to practice their fluency and expression,” said Rohde. “Plus, it’s always nice to read to someone else.”

She said the children in her class practiced reading their selected books to their parents at home the night before.

“I love seeing the kids get to work with the smallers,” said fourth grade teacher Jessica Darrow. Her students read Dr. Seuss books to an integrated pre-K class made up of students with and without special needs.

“The older kids learn compassion,” Darrow said. “It’s a break from the norm and something to look forward to. They’ve been asking me for three days ‘When are we going to read to the preschoolers?’”

Pre-K teacher Ann Hall said it is beneficial for her young students to have older children as role models.

“Just for them to know that there are kids here outside of pre-K is good,” she said.

There were Read Across America events each day at the school. On Monday, classes chose one of Dr. Seuss’s books as a theme for decorating their doors. Tuesday was reading buddies day and on Wednesday, the students held a hat parade wearing homemade hats inspired by Dr. Seuss books. Thursday was a casual “read-in” day with an early release, and on Friday, the students ate green eggs and ham for lunch and welcomed canine and human visitors from Warrior Canine Connection (WCC).

WCC is an organization that enlists recovering veterans in a therapeutic mission of learning to train service dogs for their fellow veterans. Two service dogs with their owner/handlers and two puppy service dogs in training with their trainers spent time at the school Friday morning.

Jesse Graham, an Air Force veteran who is wheelchair-bound, talked to the students about how Stanley, his 2 ½-year-old English black lab service dog, helps him by picking up items he drops and pulling the wheelchair when he gets tired of wheeling it. The bond between Graham and Stanley was evident as the 64-pound dog spent much of the time Graham was speaking sitting in his lap.

WCC volunteers train specially-bred puppies — English black labs and Golden Retrievers — for two years before they are paired with a wounded veteran. The dogs select the soldiers they want to work with.

Graham told the students that Stanley wears his service vest while he is working, but when he’s at home, he gets to take it off and just be a puppy.

“Probably like some of you, he goes straight to his basket of toys and pulls them all out for me to play with him,” Graham said.

The students all got a chance to stroke Stanley, who, in keeping with his training, remained calm during all the attention.

“He’s so soft,” marveled one student. “How is he so soft?”

While students were waiting to pet the dogs, they listened to books read to them by service-disabled veterans who also visited that day.

Sgt. Matthew Moores said he wanted to participate because his combat experience left him with anxiety about being around people.

“I’ve spent time working to overcome that, so this is therapeutic for me,” Moores said. “It was great reading to the kids.”

— Writer: auphausconner@quanticosentryonline.com