RED CLOUD GARRISON - Family, Morale, Welfare and Recreation partnered with Child Youth and School Services to bring children and Family members in the community 'Story Time' in their kickoff of the event Feb. 2 at the USAG-Red Cloud library.
"More and more families are beginning to come to Korea," said Gordon Imrie, FMWR and USAG-Red Cloud library director, as Imrie spoke of how the kickoff is supporting the garrison's wishes to offer more Family friendly events.
"We have to have events and opportunities to keep the children engaged in what is going on in the community. We have this program at the Casey Garrison, and it has been a success, so we incorporated the same program at Red Cloud."
Karen Moore, an employee of CYSS, led the group of children and their mothers in a game where they introduced themselves.
Moore sang a song to the children and when Moore paused, the children would tell the group their name while Moore continued to sing.
With the help of her CD player, Moore then began to sing nursery rhymes the children were familiar with to make them more comfortable. After singing "Old McDonald," all of the children began to participate in the group, continuing to sing "Bingo," and "the Ants Go Marching."
Moore sat the children around her and read a story for the day, "From Caterpillar to Butterfly," by Deborah Heiligman.
Trying to keep the young children entertained, Moore told the children to make special movements and sounds when they heard key words during the story.
When the children heard words like "Caterpillar," "Butterfly," or "Chrysalis," the children made the special movements.
"I heard about this event from the Red Cloud Pear Blossom Cottage," said Nicole Darak, a spouse living in the Red Cloud community.
"There aren't very many events for my daughter to attend on post, so it is a good introduction to books; being around children, and a chance for us to spend time together."
Following Moore finishing the book for the children, Families had a chance to participate in arts and crafts.
Moore and the Families then began to design their very own butterflies using construction paper of different colors, crayons, scissors, and glue.
"I think this program is great," Darak said. "A lot of parents have been saying we need programs like this, and I think FMWR is listening to us."
"We are going to continue to make changes and improvements to better the quality of life on post," Imrie said. "We want to hear from spouses, Family members, and children about what went well today, and what we can do to keep this program a success."
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