‘United Through Reading” A Gift To Military Families This Holiday Season

By ABC-7 Anchor/Reporter Celina Avila

EL PASO — Thanks to generous Sun City residents,local military families are able to share a bed time story with their loved ones who are serving our country overseas.

“We’re going to read the ‘Night Shift Daddy,'” said Army Major Carl Mason just before reading a bed-time story to his children in El Paso. Mason was half-a-world away in Iraq.

Samara, Miyah, and Carl Jr. miss their father, but they now have a DVD of him reading the book to them. Funds for the recording of theDVD and the purchase of thebook were made possible by “United Trough Reading.”

“It just gives the kids something physical to look,” said Mason’s wife Cristina. “They can also hear his voice. “

“Hey Chris, I just want to tell you I love you. You know you mean everything to me,” said Major Mason at one point in the DVD. Cristina says the videonot onlyhelps the children, but also gets her through difficult days. “Sometimes,you get angry … I ask myself: ‘What is he doing over there just worried about himself,’ but it’s not at all that way.”

So, until daddy comes back home next year, the Mason’s say they’ll continue reading along with him.

“I’ll see all of you in my dreams. Okay, good night, love you,” Major Mason says at the end of the DVD.