MSU students’ service for deployed service members

Published April 16, 2013
By 2nd Lt. Jose R. Davis
Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- At Minot State University, a group of college students in a community relations class decided amongst themselves to give back to Minot Air Force Base and deployed military service members with their class project, "Voicebook-Reading for Rugrats."

Behind the pithy alliteration is a dedicated program intended to help military personnel who are deployed and away from their families.

"I think for a community relations class, if we're not here to help people, what the heck are we doing with our time?" said Will Feldman, a student in the COMM 324: Community Relations course. "I think the 'why' you are doing it is almost as important as 'what' you're doing."

Voicebook-Reading for Rugrats is a program created by the students where they gather a collection of variously donated children's books, and afterwards offer to military parents to audio record their voice, reading a particular children's book, so a recording of their voice is left behind with their child while the member is deployed.

"Basically, what we're doing is a book drive through the community," said Joshua Zimmer, another student in the Community Relations class. "We have drop-off points all spread out at different locations in the city, and what we want to do is have them come in and record their voice reading a book for their child, so while they are on a deployment the child will still be able to hear his or her parent's voice."

Although the military has been the most receptive in participating in this program, the students would like to extend Voicebook-Reading for Rugrats to those other parents who are away from their children for a prolonged period of time.

"This project was the outcome of three entities: my course, the Center for Engaged Teaching and Learning and Minot's RSVP+. Together, we wanted to help the community and engage students in an active way," said Audra Myerchin, assistant communication arts professor for the class. "The students' passions are going to be the driving factor behind the curriculum; I think the more things they care about the better the class becomes. It was originally going to be a small component of the class, but they just took hold of it and it became a larger project than I had originally intended - that's the beauty of academia."

The MSU students have been gathering children's books since January, when classes began for the semester. Collection bins were established across the city, from Minot Public Library to Arrowhead Mall and Restore. The class collected books through March 31.

"With the books themselves, we were asking for books from the 0 to 6 age range," said Katrina Leintz, a student in the class. "At an older age, you might not want to have a bedtime story when you're going to bed, but when your parents are deployed, sometimes, you just might want to be able to hear their voice."

The students feel that their efforts in this program will continue to enforce the great mutual relationship between the base and the city of Minot.

"This project in particular started out as a class project, but it has grown so much," said Josh Sandy, a student in the class. "We are facilitators, not only for us helping out military families, but we're also helping the Minot community help our military families."

Governor Jack Dalrymple designated April as the "Month of the Military Child" in North Dakota.

"I was 14 years old when my dad first deployed," Zimmer recalled. "I wish I could have heard his voice, so doing something like this, it doesn't matter what age you are - it's still going to affect the child in a positive way."

For some of the students, this program personally affects them more so than just a grade.

"A friend of mine just deployed and he has a baby," Leintz said. "He won't be back until his son is probably one or two, and because the baby doesn't really know him very well, what I kind of liked about this aspect of the program is that the baby could hear his voice every single night, getting in the back of the baby's mind: 'this is what my parent sounds like."

But personal attachment to this program is not the only underlying motivation to succeeding for the students. In the end - the grade still matters.

"It does give you a nice feeling to help the community out," said Thomas Salery, another student in the class. "But at the end of the day we all realize this is still our class, and our goal is still to pass this class, so I think getting a good grade is what's underlying all of our efforts."

The idea of naming the program, Voicebook-Reading for Rugrats, came about as a result of collaborative brainstorming, recounted Mara Hintz, a student in the course. They all agreed that alliteration would be the key to keeping the program in people's brains. After all the ideas were thrown out there and sifted, the group of students identified two key words, reading and rugrats, Hintz said.

"They've been communicating and working very well with each other," said Professor Myerchin. "That doesn't always happen, but when it does, you leave 'well enough' alone."

Students will be at Minot AFB to do audio recordings for parents April 23 and April 24. They will set up in the Minot AFB Public Affairs office, on the second floor of the 5th BW headquarters building. April 23, 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. April 24, 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.