Schoolcraft College is participating in Pennies for Peace campaign through November

Published: 9/17/2009

 

 
LIVONIA, MI—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).
 
1 penny = a pencil
2-3 pennies = an eraser
15 pennies = one notebook
$2 or $3 = one teacher’s salary for one day
$20 = one student’s school supplies for one year
$600 = one teacher’s annual salary
$5,000 = support for existing school for one year
$50,000 = one school building and support for up to five years
 
Pageturners will be sponsoring three discussions of the book “Three Cups of Tea,” on Thursday, November 19 at 6:30 p.m. at the Radcliff Center in Garden City, and on Monday, November 23 at 6:30 p.m. and Tuesday, November 24 at 1:30 p.m. in the Bradner Library on the main campus in Livonia. Copies of the book will be available in mid-October for 40% off in the Student Activities Office or Radcliff Center. The Pageturners discussion groups are free and open to the public.
For more information about Pageturners, “Three Cups of Tea,” or the Pennies for Peace campaign, please email erybicka@schoolcraft.edu or call 734-462-4400 ext. 5685.
Schoolcraft College is a public two-year college, offering classes at the Livonia campus, Haggerty Road between Six and Seven Mile Roads, at the Radcliff Center in Garden City and online at schoolcraft.edu.
 
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