NVMS participates in Pennies for Peace

Published Jan. 29, 2010

by the Foothills Gazette
EVERSON – Students at Nooksack Valley Middle School are collecting pennies through a student-focused fundraiser called Pennies for Peace, which benefits the Montana-based Central Asia Institute, an organization that builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, especially for girls.
Each of the 365 students at Nooksack Valley Middle School participate in the event, according to teacher Vicky Walkinshaw, leading the project. Vice Principal Dale Stopperan created a powerpoint slide show for the students and staff, in which “he alternated images of life of people and children in struggling countries around the world with a picture of each one in our NVMS community, each student and each staff member,” Walkinshaw said. “This made this project real to the students.”
The school has been decorated with posters during the drive, some reading, “Did you know that 15 pennies buys a 100 page spiral notebook? Or that 2,000 pennies or $20 is a teacher’s salary for a month?”
“We are always thinking of projects that will help broaden our students’ horizons, of how we can get our students to consider things outside their normal routines, to think outside the box, outside their small community and stretch their wonderings to how people live all over the world and to feel the need to become a good citizen of the United States as well as a knowledgeable citizen of the world,” Walkinshaw said of the students.
Students first turned in pennies during an assembly on Jan. 15. Anyone from the public wishing to donate can bring pennies to the Nooksack Valley Middle School office. The drive ends Feb. 5. An update will be in the next Foothills Gazette.NVMS participates in Pennies for Peace