The Algae Revolution: From Pond Scum to a Sustainable Future

Betty Mohlenbrock, MEd

Betty Mohlenbrock is the founder of United Through Reading, which for more than 25 years has been connecting U.S. military families who face physical separation, through the bonding experience of reading aloud together. The organization has served almost two million beneficiaries since its founding and was the 2016 inaugural recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s Community Service Hero Award.

Based on the United Through Reading model, in 2010 Mohlenbrock founded Reading Legacies, which benefits children with an incarcerated parent or other family member through prison educational programs encouraging reading aloud with children. This program bridges difficult separations for children, whose incarcerated parents read aloud to them on a DVD, creating a positive connection through the books, which are then mailed home with the DVD. Reading Legacies also provides opportunities for at-risk teens to become positive role models for young children through reading aloud with them.