Students, faculty and staff of Schoolcraft College are participating in the Pennies for Peace Campaign throughout the Fall semester. Pennies for Peace is an international service-learning program through which organizations, predominately educational institutions, donate pennies to support community-based education and literacy programs in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Special Pennies for Peace donation containers have been placed in more than 40 different locations on both of Schoolcraft College’s campuses in Livonia and Garden City. The public is encouraged to join in the effort and donate to the campain when they attend activities and events at Schoolcraft College now through November 30.

The campaign is being sponsored by Pageturners, the college’s book club, and will culminate with the college’s annual Campus Read events surrounding the New York Times bestselling book, “Three Cups of Tea.” The Pennies for Peace program was founded by one of the book’s co-authors, Greg Mortenson. “Three Cups of Tea,” is Mortenson’s memoir, written with David Oliver Relin, of his failed attempt to climb K2, the world’s second-highest mountain; his being taken in and nursed back to health by residents of an impoverished Pakistani village; his promise to return and help them build a school; and his journey to keep that promise.

Since its inception in 1996, Pennies for Peace, a program of the non-profit Central Asia Institute, nearly 100 schools have been built in Afghanistan and Pakistan, educating more than 28,000 students, over half of whom are girls, an unusual feat in these two countries.

While most Americans don’t always see the value in a penny, which doesn’t buy much in the United States these days, in the villages where these schools are being built, a penny buys a pencil for a child; starts an education; and transforms a life, empowering that child to read, write, and learn. When those pennies are added up together, it’s amazing the impact they can now have (see the list below).