DiscountSchoolSupply.Com Coupon Up to 15% OFF

Get Your DiscountSchoolSupply.Com Promotion Code Here

WESTLAKE, Ohio, March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- The students at Dover Elementary School in Westlake have joined hands with tens of thousands of other school children around the world who share the vision and dedication to empower communities through education in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Dover students are embarking on a "Pennies for Peace" campaign to broaden their cultural horizons and become members of a global family dedicated to peace.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090323/CL87244 )

How can a penny bring peace? It doesn't buy much in the surrounding Cleveland area. But in the villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan, it can buy a pencil, start an education, and transform a life. In a region where terrorist organizations recruit uneducated, illiterate children, that pencil can empower a child to read, write, and learn. The Pennies for Peace program goal is to encourage children, who are ultimately our future leaders, to learn the value of philanthropy by collecting pennies for global peace.

Dover Elementary students will have an opportunity to study the cultures of Afghanistan and Pakistan, learn to work and share together in their Pennies for Peace campaign, and come to understand their own capacity as philanthropists -- one penny at a time.

Dover students have enlisted their family and friends to collect at home -- keeping a running tally each week of the totals collected -- and fourth graders have been contacting local businesses and organizations asking them to participate by placing collection containers in their workplace. In the first week of the drive -- which runs until May 22nd -- students collected $1,241.41!

The pennies that Dover students collect can add up to make a real difference.

-- 1 penny = a pencil

-- 2-3 pennies = an eraser

-- 15 pennies = one notebook

-- $20 = one child's school supplies for one year

-- $50 = one treadle sewing machine and supplies

-- $100 = maternal healthcare supplies for one year

-- $300 = one advanced student's annual scholarship

-- $600 = one teacher's annual salary

-- $5,000 = support an existing school for one year

-- $50,000 = one new school building and support for up to five years

Children in over 400 mountain villages in remote northern Pakistan and Afghanistan are on the waiting list, hoping to learn in a new school. Dover Elementary students hope to help build a bridge of peace, one penny at a time, offering alternatives to the cycle of terrorism and war.

About Pennies for Peace

The Pennies for Peace campaign is a program of Central Asia Institute (CAI), founded by Greg Mortenson, author of the #1 New York Times best seller, Three Cups of Tea. CAI is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that promotes and provides community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Central Asia. Founded in 1996, CAI has built, to date, nearly 100 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which serve more than 28,000 students, 14,000 of whom are girls. Greg's story and more information about CAI can be found on the web at www.ikat.org.

To find out more about Dover Elementary's "Pennies for Peace" campaign, or how you can help, please contact:

Kim Bonvissuto

Communications Coordinator

Westlake City School District

27200 Hilliard Blvd.

Westlake, OH 44145

(440) 250-1258

bonvissuto@wlake.org

http://www.westlake.k12.oh.us

SOURCE Westlake City School District

Credit: Westlake City School District