Wareham Middle School students are taking a look at drug addiction and awareness and with a different lens this summer.

Students in the school’s Community, Academic, Recreation and Enrichment Program (CARE) are pairing their own photographs of everyday objects and scenes with words of encouragement to shine a light on drug addiction.

“I photographed windows and wrote that there are many windows of opportunity to stop addiction,” said student Jess Black.

CARE serves students in kindergarten through eight grade and runs weekdays in the summer. The assignment is one aspect of a service learning project in Deanna Semple and Richard Paling’s classroom. The project involves having fifth, sixth and seventh grade students identify a problem, research it and then take steps to raise awareness for the issue.

Student photographs and what they wrote will be on display during the CARE Fair set for Aug. 16 from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the middle school. The public is invited to attend. Also, students will be selling lemonade and other items to raise funds for a yet-to-be-determined organization dedicated to combating drug addiction. The fair offers a chance for all CARE students to showcase their work over the summer.

The drug awareness project is completely student driven, said Paling.

“We found out what the problem is, learned more about it and came up with a way to get the community involved,” said student Felicity DiSola.

“We’re showing people there are other things, positive things they can do to avoid drugs,” said Jess.

On Thursday morning, students prepared for the CARE Fair. Students set up a series of carnival-style games for visitors to participate in and finished up their photograph projects.

Paling said students were looking forward to spreading awareness and raising money to battle drug addiction.

“This is a powerful tool,” said Paling. “When we do a service learning project students identify the problem, students implement the plan and students go out and bring about positive change.”