McKinley Students Collect Pennies for Peace
By Karen Kenyon
“The ink of a scholar is holier than the blood of a martyr.” — Proverb from Afghanistan
On a cool, slightly rainy evening in San Diego on Dec. 10, a gift from the children of McKinley Elementary School in North Park became part of a significant humanitarian movement.
The children had collected $400 in pennies for Greg Mortenson’s “Pennies for Peace” project.
Mortenson, author of “Three Cups of Tea” and the newly released “Stones Into Schools” has, through his Central Asia Institute, built 131 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pennies for Peace is an educational program for elementary school kids to help the project. Since a penny can buy a pencil in developing countries, and $1 can hire a teacher for a day, the spare pennies children collect can make a difference.
McKinley second-grade teacher Richard Kenyon and school nurse Candace Gyure both appreciated Mortenson’s book, “Three Cups of Tea,” which tells of his mission to promote peace and build schools. Kenyon and Gyure thought of involving the school’s children in the Pennies for Peace project. Soon the entire school was engaged.
“It’s important for children to know that a small thing can make a big difference,” said Kenyon, “that they can take action and it can have an effect.”
McKinley is becoming an International Baccalaureate school — a program started in Geneva, Switzerland, which teaches children to be internationally-minded and think of the world beyond themselves. “Part of this program is for kids to know they can take action and have an effect, that a small thing can change the world,” Kenyon said. “They can relate to Pennies for Peace because it is happening now.”
“Greg Mortenson and his work are a good example of making the world better,” Kenyon added.
Gathering the pennies, said second-grader Julia Nunamaker, “made us feel so proud because we had done something important — something great.”
Lily Cook, daughter of the school nurse, added, “We helped the kids who didn’t have learning areas.”
Julia added, “I look around our school now and see how lucky we are.”
At his Dec. 10 talk at San Diego Unity Center, sponsored by Warwick’s bookstore in La Jolla, Mortenson relayed his story of failure, of hope, of success. Most attending probably knew the tale, drawn as they were to hear this rare hero and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, whose thrust is to defeat terrorism with books and education.
Mortenson, a former trauma nurse and Army medic, had been climbing mountains all his life. When his youngest sister died in her sleep from an epileptic seizure, he vowed to take her favorite amber necklace and place it on top of the second-highest mountain peak in the world, called K-2, in Pakistan. But, close to the top, Mortenson was not able to reach that goal. He became disoriented and eventually ill and weak from hunger, thirst and exposure.
The villagers of Korphe gave him shelter and rest. What he saw there changed his life and gave him a lifelong purpose. He saw children trying to learn to write by drawing letters in the dirt, without a teacher many days. And he realized that girls were denied even this very primitive education.
Mortenson vowed to repay the kindness of the villagers and build a school in Korphe.
Today 58,000 children — 44,000 of them girls — have been educated in schools he began in Pakistan and Afghanistan. (Research shows that a fifth-grade education for a girl improves her health and that of her family, and that a girl will spread education in her community.)
In his talk, Mortenson also commented on our country’s commitment to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. He feels the administration should include input from Afghanistan’s tribal elders, and hopes the administration will help promote the education of women and girls in the region. “Education should be our top priority,” he said.
In fact, “Three Cups of Tea” is now required reading for U.S. commanders and troops deployed to Afghanistan. According to a USA Today story, Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, sent Mortenson an e-mail listing three bullet points of what he learned from the book: “Build relationships, listen more, have more humility and respect.”
In person, Mortenson seems shy — it appears that talking to crowds causes him stress he never encountered scaling mountain peaks. A group of schoolchildren had come from Orange County with their own donation of pennies, and he addressed many of his comments to them, making sure they understood words he used.
Kenyon, who brought a check for $400 from the children of McKinley and their artwork (a poster signed by all which said “Pennies for Peace”) was not expected at the talk, so for a while it looked as though he might not make it through the approximately 800 people waiting to reach Mortenson’s book-signing table after the talk.
That is, until, as in all journeys and fairy tales, a helper appeared. A woman in line, realizing Kenyon’s predicament, said, “That isn’t right! He needs to be able to go up and give Greg Mortenson the check.” She immediately walked up to the woman in charge of policing the line, and expressed her concern. Within seconds Kenyon had reached his summit, and was right there next to Mortenson.
He would be able to tell his students he met Mortenson and gave their check directly to him. Leaving it in a donation box in the corner of the room wasn’t enough.
Mortenson appeared thrilled. Once again, children had reached out to children. He gave Kenyon copies of all three versions of “Three Cups of Tea” (two are children’s versions), and of his recently published “Stones Into Schools” — all signed by Mortenson, to McKinley School. Best of all, Mortenson said he would write the children a letter to thank them.
Mortenson has said his mission is twofold, to help children in Pakistan and Afghanistan and to help students in the developed world become global citizens.
Now, children at McKinley feel a connection with children in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And they know, too, their pennies and their efforts will change lives.
Said second-grader Julia, of Mortenson, “I know they helped him in the village, and so he wanted to pay them back, but I also think he did it because he is kind.”
Karen Kenyon is a UCSD Extension writing instructor, as well as a published novelist and poet — and the proud mother of McKinley second-grade teacher Richard Kenyon.
For more information:
Central Asia Institute — www.ikat.org
Pennies for Peace — www.penniesforpeace.org
Three Cups of Tea — www.threecupsoftea.com
Stones Into Schools — www.stonesintoschools.com
