A University of South Carolina program to boost literacy is getting a new set of wheels. The university rolled out a 22-passenger bus Tuesday for Cocky's Reading Express literacy program outside the Russell House, where a crowd including young students, faculty and community members cheered.
The bus, outfitted with Wi-Fi and other features, was purchased with a $75,000 donation from BP oil company. The bus will ferry undergraduate student volunteers and USC's mascot, Cocky -- with books in tow -- to classrooms statewide to help disadvantaged students boost reading skills.
Kim Jeffcoat, executive director of the university's center that coordinates the program with USC's School of Library and Information Science and the Student Government Association, said she hopes the new bus will increase USC student participation in the program.
"The Cocky's Reading Express bus will enhance the program's success and enable more students, even entire sports teams or University 101 classes, to volunteer," she said.
Since the program was created in 2005, 400 student volunteers have made nearly 237 visits to schools, handing out 39,412 books to kids.
USC graduate Tommy Preston, 26, got the idea brainstorming in his dorm room while he was serving as the student body treasurer. He said he hopes the program will help change the futures of South Carolina children, where 39 percent of fourth-graders read below grade level, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
"If Cocky and our students can help children get excited about reading and shed light on this problem and to motivate others to want to see change, I think this program would have truly made a difference," he said.
