PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A new literacy effort gives Philadelphia kids a short story from a local author to read — or listen to — as they ride SEPTA.
The "Come Aboard the Reading Promise" campaign, unveiled Wednesday at the Tasker-Morris and Erie stations on the Broad Street Line, features colorful murals with riddles, maps and Philly-centric sayings. Cylindrical kiosks at those stations dispense original short stories for kids, printed on thin paper that resembles a supermarket receipt.
"Families can come up, push a button, and a little ticket will come out that has a short story that they can read with their children on the bus or on the subway," said Jenny Bogoni, executive director of the city’s Read by 4th effort. "The adults and children will have conversations about what they’re seeing, which will create background knowledge and build the vocabulary of children and hopefully just create an interest and excitement about reading."
SEPTA General Manager Leslie Richards said riding on SEPTA with their kids gives parents a good opportunity to engage with them in ways that can help them develop critical skills.
"It’s an opportunity for parents and their children to do things together — to be engaged and use transit and SEPTA as a vehicle to do that," SEPTA Assistant General Manager Kim Scott Heinle told KYW Newsradio.
The hope is that children will want to return to SEPTA to experience the murals and stories, he said. "We want them to go, 'Come on, Mom. Let’s go down to the station again.'"
Dozens of buses and shelters have signs promoting the “Reading Promise” campaign. A team of 500 volunteers, or “reading captains,” will help to distribute “Busy Bus Bags” of reading materials to families waiting at bus stops.
The campaign was created with a $900,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation and is expected to run through at least July.