Students at Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School and Henderson choral director Mrs. Carpel are working with a locally-based nonprofit, Chords of Courage, to write an original song about a person in the Civil Rights Movement. According to an e-mail to News-Press about the project, the students will identify a person of “unusual courage” from the Civil Rights Movement in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The students will research the individual they choose and, with the help of a professional songwriter, tell that individual’s story in a song. Mrs. Carpel and the choir students are raising funds for the project through Donors Choose and have less than a week left to raise $1,488.18 as of press time. The Donors Choose campaign ends next Wednesday, April 8. For more information, visit chordsofcourage.org.