Pennies For Peace, Pearson Foundation, NEA Foundation Launch K-12 Service-Learning Curriculum

29 January 2009

Pennies for Peace Toolkit Inspired by Three Cups of Tea School-Building Movement

New York, NY - January 29 - Through Greg Mortenson’s best-selling Three Cups of Tea and the author’s Pennies for Peace organization, thousands of young people across the U.S. are inspired to raise money for new schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Pearson Foundation, in conjunction with Pennies for Peace and the National Education Association (NEA) Foundation, today announced a new K-12 service-learning toolkit designed to help educators create effective penny-raising campaigns as part of their school’s curriculum.

The Pennies for Peace Toolkit, available for free at www.penniesforpeace.org, provides a standards-aligned, service learning curriculum for all grade levels, including classroom activities, fact sheets, maps provided by National Geographic, and videos about life and culture in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Toolkit supplies campaign tools that teachers and students can use to engage their local communities, including letter templates to civic leaders, press release templates, stickers, and flyers.

Three Cups of Tea tells the story of Mortenson’s 1993 attempt to climb K2 in honor of his younger sister. When a member of the group got sick, they turned around, and he got lost in the mountains of Pakistan. He wandered into a poor village, where the chief and his people took Mortenson in. Inspired by their kindness, he promised to return and build a school. Central Asia Institute, the parent organization of Pennies For Peace, has used student contributions to establish nearly 100 schools in rural and often volatile areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to more than 28,000 children, including 18,000 girls, where few education opportunities existed before.

The Toolkit is an extension of the new Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Journey to Change the World… One Child at a Time, a young readers edition of this remarkable story published by Puffin, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group.

Central Asia Institute, the parent organization of Pennies For Peace, has used student contributions to establish nearly 100 schools in rural and often volatile areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to more than 28,000 children, including 18,000 girls, where few education opportunities existed before.

“Education coupled with compassion can move mountains,” said Mortenson. “We want our students to understand the issues facing the world, to know that they have the capacity to affect change, and we want them to guide their leaders to share one penny per dollar globally, because the greatest legacy we can give our students is a legacy of peace.”

“The Pennies for Peace Toolkit recognizes that teachers and young people have a passion for taking action on the issues that matter to them most,” said Mark Nieker, president of the Pearson Foundation. “Greg Mortenson’s story in Three Cups of Tea has touched millions and the Pearson Foundation is happy to help build the movement behind his work in schools and communities everywhere.”

“The NEA Foundation funded the creation of the content for the toolkit because we saw it as an important opportunity to expand student service learning as a viable way of addressing 21st century issues,” said Harriet Sanford, President & CEO of the NEA Foundation. 

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Journey to Change the World… One Child at a Time
Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, adapted by Sarah Thomson
(Puffin, January 2009, $8.99, Paperback ISBN 9780142414125, Dial, Hardcover; $16.99; ISBN 9780803733923 Non-fiction, 192 pages, ages 8 and up).

# # #

About Central Asia Institute

Central Asia Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with the mission to promote and support community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. For more information, visit www.ikat.org.

About the NEA Foundation

Created by the members of the National Education Association in 1969, The NEA Foundation is a nonprofit, 501 (c)(3) organization that offers programs and grants that support educators’ efforts to increase student achievement, inspire classroom innovation, salute excellence in education, and provide professional development.  For more information, visit www.neafoundation.org.

About the Pearson Foundation

The Pearson Foundation extends Pearson’s commitment to education by partnering with leading nonprofit, civic, and business organizations to provide financial, organizational, and publishing assistance across the globe. The foundation aims to make a difference by sponsoring innovative educational programs and extending its educational expertise to help in classrooms and in local communities. More information on the Pearson Foundation can be found at www.pearsonfoundation.org.

About Penguin

Penguin Group (USA) is the U.S. affiliate of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children’s trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks including Berkley Books, Dutton, Frederick Warne, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Grosset & Dunlap, New American Library, Penguin, Philomel, Plume, Puffin Books, Riverhead Books and Viking, among others. The Penguin Group is part of Pearson (FTSE: PSON; NYSE: PSO). Pearson is an international media company with market leading businesses in education, business information and consumer publishing. For more information, visit www.pearson.com.

# # #

Contact

Pennies for Peace
Christiane Leitinger
303-674-7940

Pearson Foundation
Rod Granger
212-641-6114

Pengiun Young Readers Group