The Daily Bulletin Archive

Project Flight, in partnership with the Governor’s Office, the Office of Children and Family Services, and the New York State Office of General Services, founded the Martin Luther King Literacy Initiative “Leaders Are Readers” program in New York. The literacy drive was started in 2004 and was held in New York City, Albany, and Buffalo, representing three areas of the state. This year is the 10th year that Project Flight has led the charge for the Martin Luther King Jr. New York State Literacy Initiative.

Project Flight is a not-for-profit literacy organization that has worked to promote literacy locally and globally. Now in its 10th year, Project Flight provided books and learning materials to eight schools that were selected in the Western New York area.

The three winners were the Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy (School 76), Lafayette High School (School 204), and the Charter School for Applied Technologies. These schools are the leading recipients of this year’s Martin Luther King Literacy Initiative, receiving 2,000 or more books and materials. The Early Childhood Center (School 17), Lovejoy Discovery School (School 43), Discovery School (School 67), PFC. William J. Grabiarz School of Excellence (School 79) and Al-Rasheed Academy in Lackawanna are the five schools receiving an honorable mention, with each receiving a donation of over 600 books and materials.  Along with the promise to promote literacy in school and at home, each of the eight schools must develop a relationship between themselves and their local libraries to continue Dr. King’s vision of equality through literacy.

This year’s selection committee was made up of the co-directors of Project Flight  (Elizabeth Cappella, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of higher education administration; and Geraldine Bard, professor emerita of English ); committee chair Mary Jean Jakubowski, director of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library system; Wendy Paterson, Dean of the School of Education; and John Siskar, director of the Center for Excellence in Urban and Rural Education and senior adviser for Buffalo State educational pipeline initiatives. The press conference, held at Herman Badillo, was attended by the superintendent of the Buffalo Public Schools, the deputy mayor, and the assistant commissioner of New York, representing the governor, as well as others.