By Brittani Coleman
Edited by Cam Powell
Preschoolers and USC President Harris Pastides sang "the wheels on the bus go round and round" as a new 22-passenger bus donated to Cocky's Reading Express rolled up in front of the Russell House Tuesday morning.
USC's mascot, Cocky, is displayed via a life-sized graphic on the side of the white-and-garnet bus, which will be used to promote the importance of reading to young children across South Carolina. BP Oil Company, the program's corporate sponsor of USC's reading express literacy program, donated the $75,000 bus.
Charles Bierbauer, dean of the College of Mass Communication and Information Studies, said the bus would not only help organize the travel of volunteers but serve as a way of promoting the literacy program.
"We've been using vans, but this sort of announces our arrival," Bierbauer said. "It's really a visible representation of what a lot of students and others have been doing for many years now, reaching out across the state."
The program, organized by the School of Library and Information Science, which is part of the college, works with USC students and volunteers to bring books and read to public school students in preschool through second grade. About 45,000 books have been distributed to students in 33 S.C. counties since 2005.
Bierbauer said the program is directed toward young students because studies show children who read at grade level by third grade have a better chance at succeeding.
The bus has been customized with three television monitors, DVD players, electrical outlets and Wi-Fi to provide children and student volunteers with a state-of the-art learning environment. The bus will hit the road for its first stop Thursday at Financial Literacy Night with the South Carolina Bank and Trust in Orangeburg.
Tommy Preston, a former USC student government vice president, created the program seven years ago after Bierbauer asked student government leaders about creating a program to address literacy issues.
Preston said he envisioned college students reading to children to show the importance of reading and also show that the students were concerned about the issue.
"I had no idea how far the program would go, so this is overwhelming," Preston said.
