ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — A special birthday celebration in East Rochester Tuesday as several local mascots gathered at Bird/Morgan School to not only celebrate their school mascot Oscar’s birthday but also to surprise the students there.

Bird/Morgan School teaches special education for grades K through eight. Today marks one year since Oscar came into the world to help motivate kids at the school to learn.

At the beginning of the school year, Karen Cole, the school librarian, and James Wolfe, the elementary literacy leader, decided to introduce a new program.

“We kind of saw a need for our students to put books into their hands and try and get the joy of reading flowing within the school, so we kind of drew inspiration from our own school experiences.”

The mascot got his name from the program: Oscar stands for Our School Cares About Reading.