Members of the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks professional indoor football team will read to Fogelsville Elementary School students Friday afternoon as part of the school's third annual Read-A-Thon program.

The Steelhawks players will read to fourth and fifth-grade students from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., according to Fogelsville PTO member Cindy Cook. The players will also throw balls with students in the gym and greet them as they leave the building for the day.

The third annual "Reading Rocks!" progam began Feb. 1 and ends Friday.

It serves as a fund-raiser for the school for programs such as educational programs and field trips," Cook said.

The goals of the program are to raise $1 per day for the 28 days of February; read at least 15 minutes a day and reach a total combined 214,000 minutes.

"We have had many student reading well over 1,000 minutes each week.  As of today our current school today read is 210,000 minutes read by our students and we have another week of tally slips to record once they are handed in on Friday," Cook said.  "We will know how much money we raised from the event sometime next week since most of the donations come in this Friday and Monday."

Extra incentives for the students include:

• The grade that reads the most and has the highest combined reading minutes wins a Boston's pizza party.

• The class that reads the most will have an extra playground session with Principal Brenda DeRenzo.

• The top reader in each grade will have lunch with Principal DeRenzo and Mrs. Searfoss.

• The class that raises the most money gets to choose Principal DeRenzo's hair color for "PSSA Idol."

"It is a very fun month at the school. The teachers and students all really get into the friendly competition to see who will read the most and raise the most money for our school," Cook said.