The second day of the Penn Relays School Days program on Friday featured a number of Philadelphia celebrities, from the Philly Phanatic to Bill Cosby, all preaching the same message to elementary and middle school students -- stay in school, work hard and follow your dreams.
The School Days program, sponsored by the University, is designed to encourage students to be the best they can be in all aspects of life. The event starts with a series of speakers urging children to excel academically and is followed by a trip to the Penn Relays, teaching the youngsters the importance of staying healthy.
Held at the Palestra, the program was kicked off by a sampling of Philadelphia mascots -- Temple University's Hooter the Owl, Philadelphia Daily News' Newsy, the Philadelphia Phillies' Philly Phanatic and Penn's own Quaker.
The master of ceremonies for Friday's event was Dan Baker, the public address announcer for the Phillies for over 30 years.
Baker welcomed students to the historic Palestra and then introduced Lee Nunery, Penn's vice president for business services.
"Success is within your reach," Nunery told the students, "no matter whatever anyone tells you."
Before Baker could invite Cosby to the stage, the crowd of students and teachers began cheering as he waited on the sidelines to be introduced.
As Cosby -- dressed in a red short-sleeved polo shirt, blue warmup pants and white socks in Birkenstocks -- walked toward the Palestra stage, he joked around with several of the mascots -- hugging Hooter, of his alma mater Temple, and kissing the Phanatic.
Cosby began his talk with students by speaking of his childhood.
"I grew up in poverty," he said. "My parents weren't poor, they were broke."
But the comedian explained to students that he was able to overcome that adversity by using his brain and setting goals for himself. He encouraged students to do the same.
"You can come to this university if you earn it with this," Cosby said, pointing to his head. "How great it would be to see the graduating class of the University of Pennsylvania have at least 100 of you here today."
He then went on to talk about the importance of math, stressing the need to know calculus, trigonometry, geometry and algebra.
"There's a rumor that gets started in school about math," Cosby said. It's "almost like it has killed people."
He told the students that if they spent as much time studying math as they did playing GameBoy, they could invent something like GameBoy and become "multibillionaires."
Cosby also spoke of the importance of teachers.
"These people [had] a dream of teaching children and watching them grow," he told students. "Then they woke up and met some of you. Give your teachers a chance. Give yourself a chance."
In one of the funniest moments of the day, Cosby pulled his pants below his waist and said, "You have no right to wear your pants like this. I've never seen a girl at the mall say, 'Nice crack!'"
He also spoke of the importance of eating right, warning students to avoid McNuggets.
When Cosby had finished his speech, he turned to the crowd and said, "Thank you all and know that this is love."
