A penny can’t buy a kid much in Oak Harbor, but a group of sixth-grade girls are learning that it can make a big difference for students in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Since late January, students at Oak Harbor Middle School have been gathering coins for a “Pennies for Peace” project.
“Our donations will be used to support an existing school in Afghanistan and Pakistan for one year,” Kimberly Shephard, sixth-grade science teacher, said. “This is our way of fighting the War on Terror, through education.”
The campaign followed a school-wide assembly honoring Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Jan. 21. The assembly was followed by the inauguration speech by President Barack Obama.
“For our discussion, we started talking about how we could make change, locally and globally,” Shephard said.
At the time, Shephard was reading “Three Cups of Tea,” the story of journalist Greg Mortenson, whose failed attempt to reach the peak of K2 lead him to a Pakistani village where he was nursed back to health.
The village was so poor, that it could not afford the $1-a-day salary to hire a teacher.
He promised to return and build them a school. His mother, who was a principal at an elementary school, introduced the idea to her students. They collected over 62,000 pennies, and with that, “Pennies for Peace” was born.
Today, it is part of a program for the Central Asia Institute, a nonprofit organization that promotes community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Upon hearing about the book, a group of about nine female students approached Shephard.
“We came in and said, ‘We want to do this,’” sixth-grader Kayla Nagel said.
The students have collected over 12,000 pennies. They will keep collecting pennies until May.
“Every Friday, everyone in the school goes to the courtyard and drops pennies in our bin,” Nagel said.
The girls then head to the school office where they spend the lunch hour sitting on the floor and rolling change. On weekdays, students will stop into Shephard’s classroom and empty pennies into a flask on her desk.
“The reason for pennies is that everyone can donate a penny. Everyone can feel like they’ve contributed,” Shephard said.
Last Friday, the girls met in Shephard’s classroom at lunch time to watch a video from the Central Asia Institute. It showed images of children their age, and shared the message of promoting peace with books, not bombs.
One of the students said she began reading Mortenson’s book, which comes in a young adult version.
The kids say their goal is to collect 500,000 pennies or $5,000. For one year, the donations will help purchase school supplies, help advanced students with scholarships, pay for maintenance and for teacher training and salary.
As of 2008, Central Asia Institute is responsible for the construction of 78 schools within hostile borders. The hope of the organization is to have all students reach the fifth grade.
Shephard said community members can help the students reach their goal by dropping off change in the bucket in the school office, or by sending her an email at kshephard@ohsd.net.
