BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State University student-athletes have been visiting elementary classrooms throughout the region recently to congratulate the winners of the 2015 Mountaineer Summer Readers program.

Co-sponsored by Appalachian State athletics and the Reich College of Education, the Mountaineer Summer Readers program supports and encourages literacy among students in grades 1-8 throughout the nine counties that make up the Appalachian State University Public School Partnership (Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Burke, Caldwell, Elkin, Watauga and Wilkes).

The top-reading classes in each county receive congratulatory visits from Yosef and/or Appalachian State student-athletes, which are conducted throughout the school year. This week, Yosef visited Ms. Kara Renegar's class at Elkin Elementary (Elkin County) and Yosef was joined by football student-athletes Isaac Edwards, Latrell Gibbs and Brandon Pinckney for a visit to Ms. Ashley Brown's class at Westwood Elementary (Ashe County). In December, women's basketball student-athletes Kaila Craven and Elizabeth Norregaard visited Ms. Dorothy Combs' class at Cove Creek Elementary (Watauga County).

Other county winners included: Ms. Tammy Marlowe's class at Hiddenite Elementary (Alexander County), Ms. Beth Phillips' class at Sparta Elementary (Alleghany County), Ms. Leona McFee's class at Crossnore Elementary (Avery County), Mr. Michael Churchill's class at Oak Hill Elementary (Burke County), Ms. Misty Key's class at Hudson Middle School (Caldwell County) and Ms. Jenni Roope's class at Millers Creek Elementary (Wilkes County).

In addition to the visits to winning classrooms, the top reader from each county in the categories of grades 1-2, grades 3-4, grades 5-6 and grades 7-8 were recognized during Appalachian State football's Education Day victory over Troy on Oct. 31.