The Youngstown State University English Festival is an annual program designed to influence more kids to read. It was established in 1978 to establish a fund in memory of Candace Gay, the daughter of Professor Thomas Gay and Dr. Carol Gay, who died in 1977 at the early age of thirteen due to cancer. This program reaches out to about 3,000 junior and senior high school students throughout northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana from Ohio, and Lawrence and Mercer from Pennsylvania are the participating counties. In order to participate in this event, a student must read a list of seven books provided by Youngstown State University, which must be monitored by the teacher.

At the festival, there are several different competitions in which the students participate in order to win prizes. One specific event is the Candace Gay Memorial Essay Contest, which is in loving memory of Candace Gay. The English Festival takes about three days to complete, because of the large amount of participants. Each day, about 1,000 students make their way to Youngstown State University, where they expand their knowledge and interact with fellow students. This year’s English Festival will be held on April 20, 21 and 22, 2016.