Three Cups of Tea Fund Raising
Pennies for Peace Projects, 2008-2009
Dear Members of the Campus Community:
On April 21, 2009, our campus will host Greg Mortenson, co-author of this year’s Book in Common. Three Cups of Tea. Mr. Mortenson’s visit has excited tremendous interest across campus and across the community, as people are curious to hear from the person who has devoted his adult life to building schools in northwest Pakistan and Afghanistan, striving to “promote peace one school at a time.” After fulfilling his initial promise to build a school for villagers in Pakistan who sheltered him when he got lost descending K-2, the world’s second highest peak, Mortenson has gone on to raise funds to build 80 more schools in this isolated and war-torn region.
Mortenson organized the Central Asia Institute to carry out this work. One of the principal fundraisers for the Central Asia Institute is the “Pennies for Peace” campaign. Pennies for Peace was started as a way to involve school children, and others of modest means, in raising money to build schools. It is based on the notion that everyone can contribute to this work – after all, everyone has a penny to contribute.
As part of the Book in Common activities around Three Cups of Tea, students at many schools – in the Chico Unified School District, Butte College and Chico State – have organized Pennies for Peace campaigns. We’d like to encourage all members of the Chico State campus community: faculty, staff and administrators, to join these students in supporting this cause. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to tell Greg Mortenson that our campus alone raised the $15,000 necessary to build a school in Pakistan or Afghanistan?
You have probably noticed the “Pennies for Peace” jars all around campus. We’d like to urge you to give generously in this week before Mortenson arrives in support of this worthy cause. Find a Pennies for Peace jar and drop in some change for peace – we will also take “folding money” and checks made out to the Central Asia Institute. If you can’t find a Pennies for Peace jar, contact Thia Wolf, director of the First Year Experience program, about the location of collection sites or other ways of donating.
Chico has always been a generous community, even in hard times like these. Thanks for your efforts to promote peace in Pakistan and Afghanistan “one school at a time.”
Sincerely,
Angela Corral
Chair, Staff Council
Kathy Kaiser
Chair, Academic Senate
Member, CUSD School Board
William Loker
Dean of Undergraduate Education
Congregation Beth Israel of Chico Religious School children chose "Pennies for Peace" as their "Tzedakah" (charity) project this fall, at the initiative of school director Susan Archer. The children learned about Dr. Greg, the Central Asia Institute, and the lives of children their own age in Pakistan. As a Jewish school, they especially wanted to promote peace by donating to a program to help Muslim children in their studies. There was a presentation about the project for the entire congregation at the Jewish New Year. For more information, call 342-6146.
Montessori Elementary School is conducting its second Pennies for Peace Project. Call 343 4308 for more information.
CSU, Chico First-Year Experience Program Students
In connection with the First-Year Experience Program, CSU, Chico students have come together to raise money for Greg Mortenson’s efforts to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. To-date, Pennies for Peace jars are available in all of the following locations:
On Campus
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Acct & Management Info Systems (Thma 313) |
History (Trnt 223) |
In the Community
Lyon’s Books
North State Pulmonary
Montessori School
Donations are collected every other week by students and deposited in a Foundation account. The University Foundation has generously agreed not to charge a fee for holding these funds; this means that every penny you donate will go directly to building schools. Please deposit change or bills at any of the locations listed above. We appreciate your joining us in this important effort. Collection will continue until Greg Mortenson’s arrival on April 21, 2009.
If you wish to have a collection container placed in an on-campus location where you work, please contact us at fye@csuchico.edu.