The Pearl River County Partners in Leadership class, which held commencement ceremonies this past week, has donated nearly 1,200 books to the Early Head Start Program, which is part of the Picayune Municipal Separate School District.

Niki Bean, a member of the class and one of the originators of the project, said she got the idea at an education day event when an Early Head Start representative commented that they needed more books for the program.

“The idea just got stuck. They said they had a lack of books, and I thought this was something we could do to help,” Bean said.

Debbie Wale, Curriculum Manager for the Early Head Start program, said the program starts working with pregnant mothers before babies are born to help encourage the moms to read to their children.

“We always need books. We have a day when we give away books at the end of the year to make sure kids have books to read over the break,” Wale said.

Wale said the program currently serves 45 children in the three year old program, 68 children in the newborn to three year old program, and 10 pregnant mothers countywide.

The Leadership Class is an annual class that is in its fifth year. Each year, the class picks a community service project to help promote leadership in the community.

The class starts in August and ends in May, meeting one day a month for 10 months. The class discusses aspects of the county through leadership, government, law enforcement, education and health and services, said class member Jon Myers.

For more information about the Leadership Class, call the Partners for Pearl River County office at (601) 749-4919.