Greg Mortenson

Special-needs students at The Day School at The Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh sometimes struggle to say the word “school,” but they understand that some children in other countries don’t have a school at all.

“They don’t have a school because they are very poor,” John Holzapfel, 21, said with the help of a computerized communication device.

He is one of dozens of students, who, along with their families and friends, have raised $783 a penny at a time to build a school for children in Pakistan or Afghanistan through the nonprofit Pennies for Peace campaign. Since 1994, the international program has established or supported 131 schools educating more than 58,000 children.

Students at the Squirrel Hill school have various stages of neurological impairment. Some are nonverbal, and some have physical disabilities. Teachers created pages in the students’ communication devices with relevant phrases and used pictures and short videos to teach them about Pennies for Peace, said Ellen Leger, a speech and language pathologist at the school.

“One of the things we talk about is, ‘What do we do here at school?’” Leger said. “And, ‘What would it be like if we didn’t have a school?’”

Last month, the students helped Leger dump all the 78,300 pennies they had collected into three big wagons. Leger said she spent three hours at a coin sorting machine in the Squirrel Hill Giant Eagle.

The students’ fundraiser will continue through April, when Pennies for Peace founder Greg Mortenson will speak at Heinz Hall as part of the Pittsburgh Speakers Series. His book “Three Cups of Tea” documents his mission to educate children in the world’s most volatile regions, which he began on the premise that education can help foster peace.

With Leger’s help, Nick McClafferty, 17, picked the button on his communication device that expressed the mission of Pennies for Peace.

“We are trying to bring peace to a troubled place,” a digitized voice said.

Christiane Leitinger, executive director of Pennies for Peace, praised the thousands of students who have helped raise nearly $3 million for the program.

“Hats off to these kids who are taking time to help their peers on the other side of the world,” she said.

Leger said it costs more than $57,000 to send one child to The Day School until age 21. That same amount of money can build a school and staff it in Afghanistan for the first five years, according to Pennies for Peace.

“These kids are offered the best there could possibly be in this situation,” she said. “In our world, that’s what we do … so I feel that, in a way, our kids are so lucky.”

(c) Pittsburgh Review-Tribune 2010

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