After being inspired by the book "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time" Eastlake Elementary Principal Jan Tanner started a school fundraiser.
Pennies for Peace was meant to make a difference not only for the school, but for the students as well. The Pennies for Peace service-learning program began at Westside Elementary School in River Fall, Wis. in 1994, when students, through their own initiative, raised 62,340 pennies to help Greg Mortenson build his first school in Pakistan.
After collecting pennies for about two weeks from Feb. 28 to March 4 Tanner said they'd raised $1,800 for the Pennies for Peace program.
Once Tanner read "Three Cups of Tea" she felt she wanted to run a Pennies for Peace fundraiser at the school. After learning more about the author Greg Mortenson, Tanner formed her own version of Pennies for Peace.
Mortenson, who spent a great deal of time in Pakistan, has worked on getting fundraisers started with many different schools. Tanner aimed at accomplishing the same thing as Mortenson: she wanted to help the students understand the importance of their education.
Mortenson, after visiting the poverty stricken country, promised to come back and build a school. T "I really feel that by educating the children, especially the young girls, the area would be able to help sustain itself," Tanner said.
From late February to early March, Eastlake Elementary students collected spare change. Each student was sent home with a letter explaining the project to the parents. The monies earned would go to help those in Pakistan needing a good education.
Mortenson's book, (which also has a children's version, "Listen to the Wind,") was the basis for the fundraiser. Since the fundraiser also aimed to promote literacy, the children's picture book was read to the students throughout the two weeks.
"I felt we could empower the students to make a difference," Tanner said.
The fundraiser was well received among the students.
Each day the student council would go around to every class and collect the money that would be donated that day. There were small prizes given to the class that collected the most money each day.
"We wanted to focus on service learning, but we kept it a competition as well," Mary Smith, Eastlake Elementary BYU facilitator, said.
"The students got really excited to be able to participate in the fundraiser," Tanner said.
Many of the students brought in money every day just to see the tally rise.
All the money raised will go to the Central Asia Institute to be given to those in need in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
http://www.southvalleyjournal.com/pages/full_story/?id=6031&type=Articles&numitems=1&startitem=0&showimages=1
Pennies for Peace was meant to make a difference not only for the school, but for the students as well. The Pennies for Peace service-learning program began at Westside Elementary School in River Fall, Wis. in 1994, when students, through their own initiative, raised 62,340 pennies to help Greg Mortenson build his first school in Pakistan.
After collecting pennies for about two weeks from Feb. 28 to March 4 Tanner said they'd raised $1,800 for the Pennies for Peace program.
Once Tanner read "Three Cups of Tea" she felt she wanted to run a Pennies for Peace fundraiser at the school. After learning more about the author Greg Mortenson, Tanner formed her own version of Pennies for Peace.
Mortenson, who spent a great deal of time in Pakistan, has worked on getting fundraisers started with many different schools. Tanner aimed at accomplishing the same thing as Mortenson: she wanted to help the students understand the importance of their education.
Mortenson, after visiting the poverty stricken country, promised to come back and build a school. T "I really feel that by educating the children, especially the young girls, the area would be able to help sustain itself," Tanner said.
From late February to early March, Eastlake Elementary students collected spare change. Each student was sent home with a letter explaining the project to the parents. The monies earned would go to help those in Pakistan needing a good education.
Mortenson's book, (which also has a children's version, "Listen to the Wind,") was the basis for the fundraiser. Since the fundraiser also aimed to promote literacy, the children's picture book was read to the students throughout the two weeks.
"I felt we could empower the students to make a difference," Tanner said.
The fundraiser was well received among the students.
Each day the student council would go around to every class and collect the money that would be donated that day. There were small prizes given to the class that collected the most money each day.
"We wanted to focus on service learning, but we kept it a competition as well," Mary Smith, Eastlake Elementary BYU facilitator, said.
"The students got really excited to be able to participate in the fundraiser," Tanner said.
Many of the students brought in money every day just to see the tally rise.
All the money raised will go to the Central Asia Institute to be given to those in need in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
By Alisha Tondro for The South Valley
Published in April 2011 in Riverton, Utah
http://www.southvalleyjournal.com/pages/full_story/?id=6031&type=Articles&numitems=1&startitem=0&showimages=1
Just as a side note to this article, a couple of weeks after this was published, an article hit the news about the author Greg Mortenson. In this article Mortenson was accused of fabrication of his stories in the book "Three Cups of Tea."
ReplyDeleteWhen I tried to talk to Principal Tanner, she declined to comment on the accusations as she felt she didn't have enough information to do so.
As my thesis for my BA, I studied fabrication in the media in quite depth. I do not support Mortenson in what he did, nor will I ever. This is in NO way a plug for him. It is simply an article that I wrote for the paper.