Literacy Sponsorship By Verizon SuperPages Motivates Kids To Hit A Home Run and Score with the Everett AquaSox Baseball Team

EVERETT, Wash. - Over 5,000 students from Snohomish and Skagit counties have earned the opportunity to attend the Everett AquaSox baseball game vs. the Spokane Indians on Saturday, June 30. The student readers have successfully reached their goal in the "Hit a Home Run Reading" program, sponsored by Verizon SuperPages.

"The goal of our 'Hit a Home Run in Reading' program is to encourage children to read throughout the school year," said Mark Speranio, president and owner of the Everett AquaSox. "Students who participate not only strengthen their reading skills, but also have the opportunity to earn a free ticket to one of our games."

"Teaming up with the Everett AquaSox to encourage student reading is a win-win for everyone," said Les Hunter, Verizon Information Services regional vice president-sales. "The local schools provide the resources for students, the AquaSox tickets provide the motivation to keep them reading, and we are proud to provide the funding to make it all happen."

The "Hit a Home Run Reading" program is free of charge to any elementary, middle or high school student. During the program, the school sets the reading goals and each student has the opportunity to advance along the baseball path of the reading diamond. To keep the students focused, the AquaSox and its sponsors offer incentives and prizes along the way.

"Over the past three years we have reached out to over 90 schools and 25,000 students throughout Snohomish and Skagit counties," remarked Speranio. "Our goal is to strike out illiteracy and we are excited to have Verizon SuperPages on our winning team."

For more information about the program, interested teachers, parents or students may contact Sydney Swenson, director of community relations at 425-258-3673 or email at Sydney@aquasox.com.

Verizon Information Services and SuperPages.com

Verizon Information Services is a world leading print and online directory publisher and a content provider for communications products and services. The largest directory publisher in the world, Verizon has annual revenues of more than $4.1 billion and employs more than 11,000 people. The company provides sales, publishing and other related services for nearly 2,300 directory titles in 48 states and the District of Columbia and 16 countries outside the U.S. This includes nearly 1,600 Verizon directory titles with a total circulation of approximately 107 million copies in the U.S. and 37 million copies internationally.

Verizon Information Services also produces and markets SuperPages.com, the Internet's preeminent online directory and shopping resource. SuperPages.com receives as many as 8.1 million visits and completes as many as 19.9 million searches per month. SuperPages.com also powers directory services on InfoSpace, Excite, Lycos, Ask Jeeves, HotBot, BigFoot, AOL Service, AOL.com, and Digital City. Based in the Dallas area, Verizon Information Services is a unit of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), which was formed by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE. Verizon is one of the world's leading providers of communications services. For more information on Verizon Information Services, visit verizonyellowpages.com.

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