Unlocking the mind: Missoula Writing Collaborative seeks funds to help student program

he poet, looking very much the stereotype, steps to the front of the class of fourth-graders.

"Good morning, my poets!" says Robert E. Lee, his bushy beard capped by his poet beret, a dashing red-and-black scarf wrapped over the lapels of his blazer.

"Good morning," shout Carole Addis’ students at Lowell Elementary School.

The students all know the 62-year-old Lee. He is, after all, a fixture at Lowell, eight years into his work as a writer-in-residence for the Missoula Writing Collaborative http://www.missoulawritingcollaborative.org/ .

The collaborative, which has been around since 1994, fields 12 writers in 17 schools, the majority of which are in Missoula but also in the Bitterroot and Mission valleys.

By MICHAEL MOORE of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_e728ceda-0006-11df-9135-001cc4c03286.html