M idcoast community volunteers on Friday read to more than 4,000 Midcoast children in elementary school classrooms, child care centers and Head Start Centers from Waldoboro to Brunswick. United Way’s annual Community Read Aloud organizes approximately 200 volunteers to share the love of reading with young children and show them that adults in their community care about them.

“It’s hard to say who enjoys this more, the children or the volunteers,” United Way of Mid Coast Maine Executive Director Barbara Reinertsen said in a press release. “Every year we have volunteers who tell us that reading to these enthusiastic children was the high point of their week — or maybe year. And of course we believe the children benefit by being introduced to other adults, outside of their teachers and families, who care about them and enjoy reading. It’s a great way to celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday.”

Bath firefighters, in uniform, read to children in the Bath YMCA’s Preschool program. Rick Davis of FD Bath said: “It was a blast. Their laughter was the best part.”

“Thank you so much for providing us with the Fire Department, as guest readers today,” Preschool Director Annie Colaluca wrote. “The children thoroughly enjoyed having a firefighter as a reader and thought it was a blast. We were also invited to come and visit the crew and trucks after our reading and this was a huge hit with the kids. Thank you for helping make today a special day for the children.”

Bath Savings Institution was the lead provider of Read Aloud volunteers, with 15 employees reading to children for the community event.

“Our Success By 6 Initiative here at United Way has a long-term goal of promoting the importance of reading with young children, even starting at birth,” said Peter Lindsay of United Way.

According to United Way, benefits of reading aloud include language exposure, vocabulary building, and positive adult-child bonding experiences. Reading aloud with young children also is great fun and helps children learn that listening to stories, creating stories and reading themselves can also bring great pleasure.

The Community Read Aloud was coordinated this year by Mary Wallace at United Way of Mid Coast Maine and was sponsored by Comcast and the Rotary Club of Topsham Expresso.

For more information, visit uwmcm.org or facebook.com/uwmcm.