Pennies for Peace

The Pennies for Peace program was started 12 years ago by Greg Mortenson who after a failed attempt to climb K2 in Pakistan recovered in a small village and promised to build a school for the girls in that village. Since then he has built more than 55 schools. He wrote the book “Three Cups of Tea”. My sister Emily is reading it with her book club and she says there are amazing stories in the book.
Mortenson focused on the girls education knowing that they would be the ones to teach children and instill the value of education. Before the schools, children were illiterate and using sticks to scratch in the dirt. His timing was inspired as the schools were being built before the Taliban came in with their schools.

Ike’s 5^th grade class is participating in Pennies for Peace. This week they collected pennies from the classes in their school and yesterday they went to the grocery store to count how much they earned: $252.00 in pennies in just one week.

I am impressed by this organization’s ability to put a high percentage of their funds towards the schools rather than administrative costs. But mostly I am impressed at the impact this has on Ike’s 5^th grade class. They have learned about another culture, vastly different than ours, and have learned to care what happens to the 5^th graders in Pakistan and Afghanistan. They have learned that a penny here buys nothing, but a penny there buys a pencil and a pencil opens doors to the future.

Ike donated a ziplock sandwich bag of change and has mentioned several times that if he didn’t make that donation, there wouldn’t have been $252. It would have been less.

These 5^th graders feel the reward of philanthropic activity. On the way home from counting the pennies the kids started singing a song, written for the cause, called “Three Cups of Tea” they sang it loud and silly – they were feeling so pleased with themselves. It brought tears to my eyes.

They will be collecting pennies all through May. I'll let you know how much their total donation is.