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Pennies for Peace
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What can a penny buy these days?
Sliney school children are participating in the Pennies for Peace program to raise money for Pakistani and Afghan school children - one penny at a time! From Greg Mortenson's 'Three Cups of Tea' website:
"In July 1992, Mortenson's sister, Christa, died from a massive seizure after a lifelong struggle with epilepsy on the eve of a trip to visit Dysersville, Iowa, where the baseball movie, ‘Field of Dreams', was filmed in a cornfield.
To honor his sister's memory, in 1993, Mortenson climbed Pakistan's K2, the world's second highest mountain in the Karakoram range.
While recovering from the climb in a village called Korphe, Mortenson met a group of children sitting in the dirt writing with sticks in the sand, and made a promise to help them build a school.
From that rash promise, grew a remarkable humanitarian campaign, in which Mortenson has dedicated his life to promote education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
As of 2009, Mortenson has established or significantly supports 131 schools in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to over 58,000 children, including 44,000 girls, where few education opportunities existed before."
Three Cups of Tea
Thanks to our parent volunteers for the gorgeous collage and bulletin board in the front hallway!