Students at the Kuss, Morton and Talbot Middle Schools, as well as three New Bedford middle schools will be collecting books over the coming weeks thanks to the effort of LEADS (Leadership for Educational Attainment Developed through Service) students at UMass-Dartmouth. Books collected in Fall River will be used to build their own school libraries. The public is also asked to donate books for children ages 11-14 at any of the three schools. Books collected in New Bedford will be donated to Gifts to Give. Morton Middle School principal Sheila Fisher announced the project at an all-school assembly on April 25, 2011. Motivational speaker Alex Diaz of Worcester used the occasion to describe his efforts to collect over 120,000 pairs of shoes which were donated to Soles 4 Souls, a charity based in Tennessee that collect and distribute shoes throughout the world. The plan is to gather more than 4,000 books for use by students in each of the six middle school by the close of the school year in June.  Click here for the video of the assembly. Click here and here to see photos of other LEADS project at the Kuss Middle School, here for a school garden at Talbot Middle School and here for photos of LEADS student involvement in a neighborhood market survey. For more information about the LEADS project, contact Jarrad Plante at 508-496-9284.

(Top row) Morton school principal Sheila Fisher introduces LEADS students Christie Mullen and Nikki Moniz and LEADS coordinator Jarrad Plante at the school assembly. (Middle row left and right) Mr. Plante introduces Alex Diaz of the String of Hope organization. (Middle row, center) LEADS staff member Christie Mullen looks at one of the posters in the school announcing the book drive. (Bottom row, center) LEADS staff member Nikki Moniz gives students the details of the book drive.