Spotswood Library

Spotswood Library Collects

'Pennies for Peace'

The Spotswood Library is embarking upon a 'Pennies for Peace' campaign

beginning February 1, 2009.

Pennies for Peace is a program of the Central Asia Institute (CAI)

founded by Greg Mortenson, author of the acclaimed best seller,

Three Cups of Tea.

Mortenson, failing in a 1993 attempt to scale Pakistan's K2,

went on to successfully establish schools in some

of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson describes replacing guns with pencils,

rhetoric with reading, to successfully bring education

and hope to remote communities in Central Asia.

Three Cups of Tea is at once an unforgettable adventure and

the inspiring true story of how one man really is changing the world -

one school at a time.

By participating in Pennies for Peace, the Library is offering residents,

particularly school children, an opportunity to study

the cultures of Afghanistan and Pakistan, to work and share

together in the Pennies for Peace campaign, and to

understand their own capacity for philanthropy -

one penny at a time.

One penny can purchase one pencil;

15 pennies can purchase a notebook;

2,000 pennies can purchase one child's school supplies for one year!

'We're kicking off our campaign in February,' explains

Library Director Mary Faith Chmiel, 'because this February

marks Abraham Lincoln's Bicentennial, and what

better way to honor our 16th president than to

donate pennies to this cause."

The bicentennial of Lincoln's birth is also being marked

by a deluge of new books, many of which can be found

at the Spotswood Public Library.

Greg Mortenson's book, Three Cups of Tea, can be

borrowed from the library.

For more information on CAI, visit

WWW.IKAT.ORG

For more information of Mortenson, visit

WWW.THREECUPSOFTEA.COM

For additional information on the program,

please contact the Library at 732-251-1515.