MARCH 19, 2009 ISSUE
Pennies For Peace
Helping Local Children Change the World
Children at Mary’s Montessori School in Boone learn how to count pennies while participating in Pennies for Peace. Photo by Kris Golden All over the community, jars of all shapes and sizes are being filled with pennies. Covered in stickers for Pennies for Peace, these jars symbolize the ability of children in the local community to learn the value of philanthropy and empower them to seek peace on a global scale.
Pennies for Peace is a program of Central Asia Institute (CAI) and founded by Greg Mortenson, author of the New York Times bestseller, Three Cups of Tea. The book has been chosen as ASU’s 2009 Summer Reading selection, and Mortenson will be a guest lecturer in the High Country on September 10 as a representative of CAI and its mission to bring peace to the world through education.
CAI is a nonprofit organization that promotes and provides community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Central Asia. In the 13 years since it was founded, CAI has built nearly 100 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which serve more than 28,000 students—14,000 of whom are girls.
How Can a Penny Bring Peace?
A penny doesn’t buy much in the local community. However, in the villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan, a penny can buy a pencil, start an education and transform a life.
In a region where terrorist organizations recruit uneducated, illiterate children, the pencil can empower a child to read, write, learn and make the choice for peace.
The Pennies for Peace program goal is to encourage students to learn the value of philanthropy by collecting pennies for global peace. The penny is one percent of a dollar, which is symbolic of the one percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) the United Nations proposed to give to impoverished nations. This sum of one percent goes to education, food and shelter, and allows a platform to excel, not just survive.
Watauga County Schools has approved the program, and currently students at Valle Crucis Elementary, Mary’s Montessori School and Hardin Park Elementary are filling jars in their classrooms. In the program’s first week, more than five jars of pennies were collected. Each quart-size jar holds approximately $25 worth of pennies. And it’s not only pennies making their way into these jars—children are dropping nickels, dimes, quarters and even dollars into the jars.
Locally, Neighborhood Karma Krew, a local chapter of the national yoga-based non-profit Karma Krew, sponsors Pennies for Peace.
For more information on volunteering, contributing or initiating Pennies for Peace in a local school or office, email booneyogini@gmail.com or boone@karmakrew.org, or call 828-773-6693.
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