Read Across America week introduces students to a lot of characters. On Wednesday Panther Valley Elementary met one in person.

An apple named Corey, the mascot for the Lehigh Valley Reads program, greeted students outside the building. The Lehigh Valley Reads program, a joint initiative between the United Way and a local PBS station, visited the school to donate 50 books and encourage students to read.

“The event and today’s festivities are about spreading the awareness of third-grade reading. That’s the mission of Lehigh Valley Reads - to have all students reading on grade level before third grade,” said Angela Zanelli of PBS39.

The elementary school is celebrating Read Across America events throughout the week. Teachers have opened their classroom to a wide range of familiar faces from the community - a police officer, a health care worker, a firefighter, a former teacher who lives in Florida and business owners.

The idea behind Read Across America is to encourage students’ reading skills at an early age, so they can be better learners as they become older.

It is appropriately celebrated the day and week of Dr. Seuss’ birthday.

Lehigh Valley Reads focuses on third grade because it is proven that students who are reading their grade level by third grade will perform better in upper grades.

One of the ways they do that is the “million minute challenge,” which asks the Lehigh Valley area to collectively read for 1 million minutes. This year, residents have pledged more than 2 million minutes.

Getting students excited about reading is of particular importance to Panther Valley Elementary because many students do not read at their grade level, according to Nicole Pollinger, family development specialist for Panther Valley Elementary.

“We’re very big on trying to get books into all the students’ homes, whether they can read them or their parents can read to them. We’ve been doing a lot of fun activities throughout the week,” Pollinger said.

Families can pledge reading minutes to the million minute challenge at Lehighvalleyreads.org.