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By Doug Ernst, PUBLISHER
What do you do with your pennies? Mine used to end up in a big jar that I took to the grocery store change machine once in a blue moon. I found a better use for them: Helping to solve a problem that threatens lives throughout the world. It’s called the Rotary Roots for Peace Campaign, and it could easily involve St. Helena schools and St. Helena banks.
Last Thursday, Rotary International and the San Francisco Rotary Club joined the campaign and encouraged schools, churches and Rotarians throughout the Bay Area to get involved.
First, the problem: There are an estimated 70 million landmines in 70 countries. They cause civilian casualties, prevent farming, stop transportation of people and goods, prevent the construction of schools and playing fields and retard economic growth.
Now for the solution: In 2004, the Roots for Peace Penny Campaign was founded by Heidi Kuhn, her daughter Kyleigh and TV news anchor Cheryl Jennings. The money is used to remove landmines in rural communities in war-torn countries, replant farmland, and construct schools, soccer fields and playgrounds.
Most of the pennies collected so far have come from public and private schools in nearby counties.
• Del Mar Middle School in San Rafael marked the second anniversary of 9/11 with a Penny Campaign kickoff. The Bank of Marin started things with a contribution of 100,000 pennies.
• St. Raphael’s Church followed up three months later in December 2003 with 50,000 pennies.
• By 2004, the campaign had reached 75 schools and raised $70,000.
• In May, Kyleigh and other teenagers involved in the campaign were honored in Washington, D.C., by Secretary of State Colin Powell.
• In October 2004, Napa’s Blue Oak School joined the penny campaign.
• In September 2005, those who lost their lives on 9/11 were honored when a penny campaign was kicked off by students from Aptos, Pacific Collegiate, Watsonville, Monte Vista Christian, Harbor, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley and Soquel high schools.
• In September 2006, more than 1,000 teenagers from Thornton Junior High School in Fremont joined the campaign in honor of the victims of 9/11.
The campaign has raised 15 million pennies to date.
Which schools will honor the victims of 9/11 this September by kicking off a penny campaign?
Any school can get involved, simply by filling out an online form requesting a penny canister. The Web site is www.rootsofpeace.org.
If local schools get involved in raising pennies, they will need local banks to take care of the funds and properly transfer them to the nonprofit Roots for Peace organization.
More information is available by calling Heidi Kuhn at (415) 948-9646. |
