Photo by Bob Sofaly

Friday was Grab Your Hat and Read With the Cat Day, part of the Read Across America initiative for pre-K through 3rd grades. Area elementary school students took full advantage as they came by the bus load to the University of South Carolina Beaufort’s Historic Campus to have volunteers read to them. Here, after reading stories about dogs helping people, Aiiana Chapin, 7, of Port Royal Elementary School, pets Bailey a seven-year-old American Mixed Breed.