Malmstrom youth win AF top reading contest

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Katrina Heikkinen
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  Cicero once said, "Read at every wait; read at all hours; read within leisure; read in times of labor; read as one goes in; read as one goes out. The task of the educated minds is simply put: read to lead."

Malmstrom Air Force Base Library personnel work year-round to maintain reading programs to prove libraries are still essential assets to the U.S. Air Force and the world. But this year, their achievements were exemplified when two of Malmstrom's own earned top Air Force reading awards during the Summer Reading Program.

Kayla Eyre, 14, daughter of Master Sgt. Bryon Eyre, 819th RED HORSE Squadron combat arms instructor, received the Top Young Adult Category award after reading 4,200 minutes. Massimo Fidani, 9, son of Chief Master Sgt. Frank Fidani, 341st Missile Wing command chief, received the Top Children Category after reading 6,000 minutes.

"I am so proud of our Malmstrom children and of our two top readers," said Dixie Paronto, 341st Force Support Squadron supervisory librarian. "Summer reading programs are essential to the education and social development of children. Children who read year-round not only read better, but also write better, spell better, have larger vocabularies, speak better and have better social skills. However, even children with access to books won't read if it's not fun. So we always try to make our reading programs fun."

Sponsored by the Department of Defense, this year's Summer Reading Program's theme was "Have Book, Will Travel," and lasted for eight weeks. Malmstrom participants ranged in ages 2 to 16, totaling 126 registered readers to record more than 90,000 minutes of reading.

"Without the Department of Defense's reading program, we could not provide this level of excellent programs," Paronto said. "The DoD program provides something unique for all military children who move around the world. The Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Army base libraries both here and abroad offer the same program, so the children can continue wherever they live."