RALEIGH — Friends and family of a missingN.C. State Universitystudent are hoping a yellow-ribbon campaign will generate new leads in the 7-month-old case.

Kristen Modafferi, 18, has been missing since June 23, 1997. Her parents, who live in Charlotte, and friends say she vanished that day from the San Francisco Bay area, where she was going to summer school at the University of California at Berkeley. She has not been seen or heard from since.

Investigators suspect foul play.

On Friday, Kristen's friends and family distributed yellow ribbons on the NCSU campus. They hope their cause will get some national attention during Saturday's N.C. State-Maryland men's basketball game, which airs on ESPN. Students, including Kristen's sister Allison, will hand ribbons to spectators.

"The intention is to catch ESPN's attention so, hopefully, we might have Kristen's picture broadcast nationally," Allison Modafferi toldThe News & Observer.

Kristen was last seen leaving work at the Spinelli Coffee Company at 3 p.m. on June 23, 1997. She reportedly told fellow employees that she was interested in going to the beach in the Lands End area, and asked for directions.

Kristen never returned that night to her house in Oakland, never showed up for work the next day and never attended class the following day.

Family and friends say she is not the type of person who would disappear without telling others where she was going.

A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to Kristen's safe return. If you have any information, call Officer Patrick Mahany of the Oakland police at 510-238-3641, or Graham Desvernine of Desvernine Associates, a private investigation firm, at 800-969-9800.