Evening Meeting: Miss West Virginia Karrington Childress

A native of Charles Town, West Virginia, Karrington Childress is honored to represent the Mountain State while advocating for literacy on behalf of children in West Virginia. Karrington is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education at Shepherd University, with plans to pursue a master’s degree in Education and become a Literacy Specialist.

Because of her passion for reading, Karrington is dedicating her year of service as Miss West Virginia to promote reading among school age children across the Mountain State. To get children excited about reading, she created “Karrington’s Kidz Readers are Leaders” Book Club where she hosts a weekly Sunday evening story hour. Over the last three years she has read over 175 books in over 2,000 hours of stories on Facebook Live and YouTube.

Karrington has partnered with Read Aloud West Virginia, a statewide program that recruits the community at large to build a culture that values reading. Volunteers are assigned elementary and intermediate schools to connect with students while doing a weekly classroom reading. In addition, The Children’s Home Society of Martinsburg and The Bolivar Community Center are homes to Karrington’s collections of books, which act as free libraries accessible to all. For her work on literacy in West Virginia, Karrington was presented a Certificate of Recognition at the nation’s capitol from Congressman Alexander Mooney.

To join Karrington’s Kids Readers are Leaders on Sundays, follow her on Facebook and YouTube at

Karrington is available for appearances at schools, events, meetings, and libraries.