Friday, September 10, 2010

Hearthstone School Participates in the Pennies for Peace Campaign


Above is the book that inspired our class to join in Pennies for Peace Campaign







Above from left to right: Leif Kvarnes, Noah Waller, Trusten Murrah,
 Liam Bauchspies, Jasper Gros, and Liz Shaw
Hearthstone School, Sperryville, Virginia
Monday, September 13, 2010
The students at Hearthstone School 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. Hearthstone students are embarking on a Pennies for Peace campaign to broaden their cultural horizons and become members of a global family dedicated to peace.

How can a penny bring peace? It doesn’t buy much in Rappahannock County. 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.

Hearthstone 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.

Many schools, hospitals, homes, and crops have been affected by the massive rains and flooding in Pakistan. According to the U.S. Department of State 20 million people have been directly affected. 61,776 square miles have flooded. 1,248,704 homes have been damaged or destroyed. 13,900 square miles of cropland has been damaged or destroyed. According to the BBC 10,000 Pakistan schools have been destroyed by the floods and 9 million children have been affected. Hearthstone students hope that the pennies they collect will also help fund the rebuilding of schools in Pakistan.

After reading Three Cups of Tea (the Young Reader’s Edition) the students in Ms. Liz’s class decided that they wanted to be a part of Greg Mortenson’s efforts to build schools for girls and boys in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Luckily the Pennies for Peace project is exactly what the class needed to get started in their mission for world peace.

“World peace is attainable, but we are doing it all wrong. Fighting violence with violence is not getting us closer to a peaceful world, but education is; to attain world peace we must fight ignorance and hate with education,” says teacher Liz Shaw.

Hearthstone will place jars to collect pennies at the Corner Store in Sperryville, Oldway Art Center, the Rainbow Market in the Rappahannock Wellness Center (on Hearthstone’s campus), and in Hearthstone School’s main office. The school will be collecting pennies from September 13 through December 17.

The pennies that Hearthstone 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 for existing school for one year
$50,000 = one 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. Hearthstone 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 http://www.ikat.org/.

Contact Information
Hearthstone School
11576 Lee Hwy.
P.O. Box 247
Sperryville, Virginia 22740
Office (540) 987 - 9212
Email info@hearthstoneschool.org