Published: July 16, 2008 12:06 pm            

‘Road to the White House’ winds through San Marcos

C-SPAN coach shines light on 'Campaign 2008'

San Marcos — The wheels on the bus go round and round – all the way to Washington, D.C.

C-SPAN’s Campaign 2008 bus made a stop in San Marcos on Tuesday as part of its “Road to the White House” tour.

“With these buses we get to go to various communities and talk to students of all ages,” said Heath Neiderer of the bus crew.

The red white and blue tour bus made its way through downtown and pulled over for a stop at the Boys and Girls Club of Central Texas to talk to future voters.

Youngsters ages four to 14 boarded the bus and explored the compact television studio inside, where they learned the logistics of covering a political campaign.

“When we talked to them on board, we mentioned that they watch Cartoon Network, they knew what the Food Network was, they knew BET, they knew MTV. We just want to make sure that they know about C-SPAN and what we provide,” Neiderer said. “They’re starting to learn about the state, local and federal government. When you do learn about it, tune in to C-SPAN, it might help you with your studies and it might help you down the road when they go to college.”

He said while the students of the club are not old enough to vote and some are too young to read, they can still take advantage of C-SPAN’s political awareness.

“We have a great resource that’s called C-SPAN classroom, which is geared for middle and high school social studies teachers,” said Neiderer. “You use short little C-SPAN clips in the classroom,” along with discussion questions and work sheets.

The 45-foot mobile studio travels to major political events along the campaign trail and has visited hundreds of cities and schools where over 81,400 visitors have come on board.

“In addition to going to the Boys and Girls Clubs, we go to middle schools, high school, universities and city halls and we talk to people that want to board our bus and inform them about C-SPAN and the upcoming election and what type of programming and resources they can use to stay informed,” said Neiderer.

Various stops by the C-SPAN bus in San Marcos were sponsored by Time Warner Cable and Grande Communications.

        

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