Students Campaign for Pennies for Peace

Inspired the work of Greg Mortenson, who worked to build schools in Afghanistan, the students at have spent this year learning about his work and fundraising for the . This is the second year that Spruce has participated in Pennies for Peace, and the students hope to raise $5,000, enough to support a school for one year.

Take a look at the four essays below  to see what these students have to say about the importance of the campaign. To contribute, you can make a donation at the school office at 501 Spruce Avenue during regular school hours.

By Jacqueline Vasquez:

We’re collecting pennies to save the most important thing in kid’s lives: education. With just one penny they can buy one pencil. Do you know how much pennies cost over there? They cost a lot of money. Children in Afghanistan and Pakistan can go to high school, even college! They can get jobs if we collect pennies. Last year we collected $1, 500. We will earn even more money this year because we have kindergarten, first, second, third, fourth and fifth grade collecting pennies. 

By Neha Bhusal:

You may think everybody has the same things as you, but you’re wrong. Many people from Pakistan and Afghanistan don’t and only boys can go to school but some boys don’t because their mother needs them to be soldiers. That’s not good. They may die and their mother can’t do anything about it. So you know one penny gets you one pencil and two pennies can get you an eraser. So if you want to be a peacemaker, donate pennies. More fact you know Dr. Morgan went to walk up the mountains, and he got sick he went the wrong way he met some people from Khorfe.  He saw how the kids were sitting on the ground writing with a stick with no teacher! He asked where’s your teacher? They said our teacher is somewhere else, we can’t pay him, he promised that he’ll come back and make a school for them and he did. The end.

By Izcaly Madrigal:

We are collecting pennies for peace because we can make a difference in the world. And you can make people live better. You can give pennies. One penny buys one pencil. You can give a penny for a girl’s school. You can save a girl’s life.

By Quetzali Flores:

Why are we colleting pennies? We are collecting them to make a difference in Afghanistan and Pakistan. If we do we can change people’s lives. In Afghanistan one pencil costs one penny. An eraser costs two pennies and a notebook costs 15 pennies. Also, if you can donate pennies it’s like you can build a school. Now, thanks to Greg Mortenson there are 171 schools with 68,000 children including 54,000 girls going to school. He made a school so girls could learn and get an education because they didn’t go school. Now they do! All thanks to Greg Mortenson. He is the one who wrote Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools. He made a big difference and changed many lives. Now thanks to him they now have schools. So donate pennies and make a big difference.