Greg Mortenson

Sandra Shallow said she’s fine if from here on in she is forever known as the ‘penny lady’.

It’s a moniker the Marystown resident indicated has become associated with her since she adopted the ‘Pennies for Peace’ project at the beginning of the year. Some 300,000 pennies later, with the year just about up, Mrs. Shallow reflected on the experience.

“I’m glad that I decided I would go for a year. Otherwise, I never would have had this experience. I’m glad that I set a deadline of a year.

“A week ago or so I thought, ‘Gee, how can I stop? How can I stop?’ But now I’m ready.”
Mrs. Shallow was inspired to start her own ‘Pennies for Peace’ collection after reading Greg Mortenson’s ‘Three Cups of Tea’ in 2008.

An American, who grew up on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, the death of his epileptic younger sister in 1992 spurred Mr. Mortenson to climb the world’s second highest mountain – Pakistan’s ‘K2’ – in her memory.

He was finished his climb and recovering in a small village named Korphe, when he saw some children writing in the sand with a stick.

He promised to help build a school in the area and has been promoting education, with an emphasis on girls, in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan ever since.
He also co-founded the non-profit Central Asia Institute and ‘Pennies for Peace’.

The project aims to illustrate the value of a penny – essentially devalued in the western world – by showing how much the ‘worthless’ coin can accomplish.

For example, in the region between the two Middle East counties a penny can buy a pencil. Two thousand pennies, or $20, can pay for a child’s education for a year.

TOOK OFF

Mrs. Shallow, who works in the library at College of the North Atlantic’s Burin Campus, indicated she had no idea the local collection would take off as it did. The Central Asia Institute recommends a two to three month campaign in a school.

When she registered with the organization, she decided she would place a jar on her desk at work, which she figured would probably take a year to fill. Instead, the jar has been filled, emptied and refilled too many times to count, as students, faculty and staff dropped by with their coins to contribute to the cause.

“Someone would say, ‘Sandra, the jar’s too full. You’ve got to empty it and it would get full again.”

But it wasn’t just the jar in her office.

Pennies came from other College of the North Atlantic campuses, from individuals around the Burin Peninsula and even several organizations in St. John’s, thanks in part she said to coverage in The Southern Gazette, which picked up on the story back in January and followed along throughout the year.

“I don’t know how many times I’d walk into the mall and people would just look at me and say, ‘You’re the lady that got the pennies. I got pennies for you. I’m reading the stories in the Gazette.’

“So, the pennies just came to me and came to me and came to me. It’s been fantastic. The support has been absolutely fantastic.”

OVERWHELMING

Mrs. Shallow indicated she has been awed by the response – so much so she was unsure how to answer when a friend commented recently it must feel good to be coordinating such a wonderful project.

“I couldn’t answer because the feeling that it gives me is not what I know as a good feeling. Neither is it a bad feeling.

“I guess it’s kind of like overwhelming to know that people would trust you to bring this to you and accept that I don’t count the pennies.”

As recommended by the Central Asia Institute, Mrs. Shallow contacted a bank – Toronto Dominion Bank in Marystown – that agreed to accept the pennies, count the coins and exchange them for a cheque. Mrs. Shallow has sent the cheques on a regular basis to the charity via registered mail, paid courtesy of College of the North Atlantic.

For the record, the penny tally stood at 235,000 up to the end of October. Mrs. Shallow had yet to receive a count for November as of last week.

However, with strong donations for the last two months of the year, she projected 300,000 pennies as a reasonable total.

She said she’s glad the end is in sight for her.

“I suppose I’ll be able to give up that moniker, but maybe people will always recognize me as the ‘penny lady’ and that’s not a bad thing.”

(c) The Southern Gazette 2009

http://www.southerngazette.ca/index.cfm?sid=312525&sc=384