MINNEAPOLIS -- Without his Minnesota Vikings jersey and
Pro Bowl moves, Korey Stringer was just another 335-pound volunteer
sitting among fifth-graders in Carol Dey's class.
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In memory of Korey Stringer
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The Stringer family and the Minnesota Vikings have requested that gifts in
memory of Stringer be given to the Minnesota Viking Children's
Fund on behalf of Korey's Crew, c/o US Bank, SDS 12-2147, P.O. Box
86, Minneapolis, Minn. 55486-2147.
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"No. 2 was football, it was always education that he would talk
about," said Dey, recalling the 22-year-old rookie who began
monthly visits to her class five years ago.
From libraries to locker rooms, Stringer is being remembered as
a person who showed up in the stands of high school football games,
talked about math with elementary students and remembered the first
name of a 12-year-old child a year after they met.
Stringer, 27, died early Wednesday of heat stroke, a day after
collapsing at the Vikings' training camp in Mankato.
"He would say, 'When you read, you succeed,"' said Josh
Neurer, 12, who listened the past two years as Stringer preached
volunteerism and reading to a group of young St. Paul library
workers.
Stringer remembered Josh's name from the year before and even
recalled the seventh-grader also played tackle on the city's
football league. Stringer arrived a half-hour early to spend time
with each child -- Josh even got few football tips.
"When you're blocking, always pursue the defensive guy with an
angle of pursuit and come off the ball quick," Josh recalled. The
boy later received a letter from Stringer, congratulating him on
his library work.
Stringer promoted literacy and local involvement as part of his
"Korey's Crew," a community program he started.
Dey said Stringer wasn't like other celebrities who have
volunteered in her classroom at Bancroft Elementary School in
Minneapolis. The gigantic lineman would sit among the fifth-graders
and ask what they were reading.
The class had a display of a Viking's head with a braid that a
student would attach a piece of paper to for each book read.
Stringer challenged the kids to extend the braid to the principal's
office down the hall, which they eagerly did.
This spring, Stringer came back and celebrated the feat with
pizza, Dey said.
"He was a friend. He was a genuine friend from another world,"
she said. "It's a great loss to our school and our community."
Stringer used to show up in the stands during football games for
St. Paul Central High School. Last year, he volunteered with the
team three times a week, sometimes taking the 16-, 17- and
18-year-old linemen aside on the field, said coach Scott Howell.
"From day one -- when I introduced him to my team -- two minutes
later, he was walking with our top receiver, walking down the
hallway telling him, 'OK, here's what you're going to do,"' Howell
said.
It wasn't just footwork. Stringer also would counsel players on
grades and college.
"He was down-to-earth -- worked right alongside the kids,"
Howell said. "He did a little bit of everything."
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