Southside Middle students complete project "from the heart" | Community Spirit

Fifth graders from Southside Middle School in Tallassee recently completed a special Valentine’s Day project – one “from the heart”.

Daiann Hughes, a fifth grade teacher at Southside, coordinated the project.  Mrs. Hughes went online and searched for schools that were in need of books after the devastation wrought by Superstorm Sandy during November, 2012. 

One school system caught her attention – New York City’s Staten Island was particularly hard-hit – and after contacting the Superintendent’s office, discovered that PS 39 in Staten Island had lost its library in the storm.

The fifth grade team of teachers consists of Elizabeth Herring, Heather Burton, Erin Smith, Diane Kuehndorf, Daiann Hughes, and Cory Eckstein.

“The books were either new or ‘gently’ used, and are fiction as well as non-fiction titles.  They ranged from readability grades K-6.  There were no adult books; all were children’s books – several of which we had in our school library,” Mrs. Hughes explained.

“This was in conjunction with our Character Education themes of kindness, generosity, service, and compassion,” Mrs. Hughes continued.  “The students decorated hearts and heart-“paws” (our mascot is Tigers) for the students who would be receiving our gifts,” she said.

Assistant Principal Bruce Dean paid to mail the boxes containing the hundreds of used books, and these books “from the heart” were received by PS 39 in time for Valentine’s Day.