With curiosity piqued, a young boy patted and prodded tufts of chestnut-colored fur like a sleuth on the brink of cracking a mystery. As fingertips finally connected to the firm snouty visage features, a eureka moment appeared on the boy's face.
"It's Rumble!"
Rumble the Bison with Thunder Girls in tow boarded the Rolling Thunder Book Bus, presented by American Fidelity, to visit NewView Oklahoma's Oklahomans Without Limitations (OWL) summer camp for children aged eight to 18 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art on Wednesday morning.
NewView Oklahoma, an organization aimed to empower the blind and visually impaired, teamed up with the Thunder to help kids pick out their book of choice during the stop.
For Lauren Branch, president and CEO of NewView Oklahoma, partnering with the Thunder organization encompassed a shared outreach initiative to promote reading and education in the community.
"Literacy is a big issue, especially in Oklahoma." Branch said. "Kids need to be able to touch, feel and be able to experience reading as fun. For the Thunder to be able to be involved in literacy efforts, it really makes a connection with the kids."
OWL campers, aided with walking sticks or a camp counselor, climbed their way to the inside of the bus where they were greeted by their sunny book selection assistants, Thunder Girls Jaimie and Stephanie.
Popular children's titles in braille along with an individualized gift bag for each kid lined the shelves.
The opportunity to interact with the kids while combing through book after book was a special experience for the Thunder Girls on hand.
"It's really fun getting to talk to them and see what books they like to read," Stephanie said. "Watching them understand braille is so interesting and cool."
While Rumble and the Thunder Girls were the catalysts of the irrepressible joy behind the bespectacled young faces streaming in and out of the bus with the eventual book in hand, every newly-created fissure between the shelved books underscored not only the leitmotif of literacy, but also the egalitarianism of education for young minds.
"It's amazing. These kids are a lot of fun. They want to do everything all kids do," Valerie Aubert, vice president of development and communications at NewView Oklahoma, said. "They're no different than any other kid. I've seen them come out and have the best time on the bus. They we're so excited things were in braille."
"Having braille books on a bus like this is phenomenal," Branch said. "Being able to have this experience is really awesome."
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