HASLETT, MI (March 20, 2006) – In partnership with the Books for Africa chapter at Michigan State University, an economics class at a nearby school, Meridian High School, has collected

more than 3,000 used books for Books for Africa.

"Meridian High School students have worked diligently to promote the project

and to bring in used books from home during the past 3 weeks," said Connie

Detjen, the organizer of the project and an economics teacher at Meridian

High School. " Students at our district’s middle school collected 633  books, and

another high school in the district contributed many used textbooks. These books will

greatly help thousands of young people in poor communities throughout

Africa. This is a remarkable effort that our students have carried out as

part of African American history month."

 Laura Sologuren, president of the Michigan State University chapter

of Books for Africa, generated interest in the project by visiting the school in January, showing

slides about the organization and telling about the need for books on the African continent.

The project is part of an economics unit in which students studied the

distribution of wealth between developed and developing countries, with some

of the world's poorest people living on the African continent. The Books for

Africa project gave the students an opportunity to work together as a team,

to reach out to their local community, and to apply their learning to a

real-world problem.

Meridian High School is an alternative high school of 130 students, grades 9

- 12, where students work towards a high school diploma and from which most

graduates go on to college.   A unique feature of the school is the

 Family Learning Center in which pregnant and parenting teens

and their children learn in the same building, the offspring being cared for

in a fully-licensed child care facility. The school is North Central

Accredited and is part of the Haslett Public Schools.