The University of South Carolina welcomed more than 200 business and community leaders aboard Cocky’s Reading Express™ at an invitation only Red Carpet Video Premiere Feb. 9.
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President Harris Pastides and Ms. Patricia-Moore Pastides hosted the evening.

The Cocky’s Reading Express™ video is a documentary style production about a statewide literacy initiative founded in 2005 by USC student leaders.

Cocky’s Reading Express™ continues to roll across the state as a collaboration between the university’s Office of Student Government, School of Library and Information Science and the SC Center for Children’s Books and Literacy.

Cocky’s Reading Express™ inspires children at underserved elementary schools to become reader leaders in their homes by reading to moms, dads, pets and friends. Student volunteers accompany the university’s mascot, Cocky, as they read to students and encourage them to do well in school. All children receive books of their own from Cocky to take home.

“Cocky and his student friends have the ability to show young children that reading can take them places, open vistas, create possibilities,” said Charles Bierbauer, dean of the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies. "Cocky’s Reading Express™ should have that same impact on the community, creating the realization that literacy is the first building block toward a child’s success.”

See photos from the event>

See guests on the red carpet>