Todd Hall students break $1,000 in pennies campaign
What does $1,052 in pennies look like?
The second grade Todd Hall students who helped collect those pennies at school over the past few weeks might tell you the pennies look like hope for kids just like them, half a world away in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In fact, the coin-filled jars hauled to last week to Liberty Bank by students, parents and teacher Laura Barringer, will go to the Pennies for Peace program which provides everything from pencils to school buildings in those countries.
The program, started roughly two decades ago by mountain climber Greg Mortensen, collects funds raised in penny form by American school children in the U.S. and elsewhere and uses it to help Pakistani and Afghan children, especially girls, who might otherwise never see the inside of a well-equipped classroom.
As they raise the money, students here study about life and education in the target countries, by reading Mortensen’s books and watching videos about the program. The lessons also teach them about character, perseverance and tolerance throughout the world, and in their own lives.
Barringer’s gifted program students worked with her to plan and complete the project, and they were eager last week to talk about what they’d done. Gifted students in District 74′s Lincoln and Rutledge Hall have also undertaken Pennies for Peace efforts this year.
“We had so many pennies that we couldn’t take them all to the bank at once,” Lilly Gussis said last Thursday, one day before she and her classmates made a final trip to the bank.
Her companions Chloe Babcock and Nina Gillespie were eager to talk about “Dr. Greg’s” story, told in his books Three Cups of Tea and Listen to the Wind. Others revealed what they hoped their pennies would buy: Lexi Lee wanted the proceeds for pens and pencils, while others, like Gabriel Cohen and Mohammad Larya, hoped to collect enough money to build a school.
Barringer said her second graders will always remember the lessons of perseverance the stories, and their own efforts, taught them.
For information on Pennies for Peace, visit the program’s Web site at www.penniesforpeace.org/home
(c) Pioneer Press 2009
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