Hopwood, WSR students help build schools

PeaceBuilders at Hopwood Junior High and at William S. Reyes Elementary Schools are now collecting pennies through Mar. 31, 2009, to help remote, underserved communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan build schools.

Inspired by Greg Mortenson’s bestseller The Cups of Tea, PeacePartners Inc., the owner of the PeaceBuilder program, has invited all of its more than 1,000 sites to participate in this global community fundraising event.

Both schools have been using the PeaceBuilder program for more than 10 years to teach young people skills that help them build safe, peaceful environment; and they have seen the difference it makes in student behavior. The secret to their success is the praise and encouragement adults provide to youth along with adult-role modeling of the mix PeaceBuilder principles.

Hopwood and WSR will collect pennies from students, staff and community. Their donations, along with donations from other PeaceBuilder sites all across the United States, will be sent to Pennies for Peace, a program of Central Asia Institute, co-founded by Mortenson. All CAI projects are initiated by the village community and involve community participation and funding to complete the project.

“Help Others” is a PeaceBuilders Principle; and raising money to help for other children obtain an education is a proactive way for children to build world peace.

“Children have an innate desire to help others, but they might feel too small to help do such grand things as build schools in countries half way around the world,” says Michelle Molina, president of PeacePartners, an organization that teaches youth how to interact in a peaceful environment. “By encouraging children to donate loose change they’ve collected, we teach them that even something as small as a penny- or a child- really can make a difference.”

Youth and other individuals who wish to participate in this effort should turn in their donations to a licensed PeaceBuilders site. To find a participate locations, e-mail pennies@peacebuilders.com or call toll-free 1-877-4-peacenow. Peacebuilders is owned and operated by PeacePartners, Inc. PeaceBuilder is the renowned anti-violence youth program approved for the federally fund Safe and Drug-Free School Act. [B][I](PR)[/I][/B]