Making a positive global impact 1 cent at a time Upper Freehold Regional Middle School's Guidance Counselor Jessica Bryant (l-r), students Carly Dubrosky, Sam Lawson, Erica Gale and Jay Kloskowski and Assistant Principal Jill Dobrowansky celebrate raising $600 for schools in war-torn areas of the world through Pennies for Peace. ALLENTOWN - Local sixth-graders have learned that every penny is a vote for the kind of world they want to live in. For the past several months, Upper Freehold Regional School District sixthgraders have been participating in a fundraiser called Pennies for Peace, a nonprofit service-learning program of Central Asia Institute (CAI). Pennies for Peace provides funds to build schools in war-torn areas of the world, such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. Through the project, students learned that although the penny is often deemed insignificant in theUnited States, the coin can make a difference in the life of a child elsewhere. The sixth-graders discovered that in other countries, a penny can buy a pencil, which for some is the key to opening the door for an education. The Pennies for Peace project originated in guidance counselor Jessica Bryant's SurvivorsClub, where students researched facts on schools and education in war-torn areas. When students sawhowbleak the situations are in some parts of the world, they wanted to make a difference. Survivors Club members spread the news about what they learned and convinced all sixth-graders to start collecting spare change to help youngsters in other countries. "This was a good idea to help the kids in Afghanistan and Pakistan who don't have schools," sixth-grader Sam Lawson said. "It was fun." To make the project more challenging, Bryant created a competition between two sixth-grade teams. The original goal was to raise $100 per team. "The students thought they would never reach $100," Bryant said. "We were amazed at how much money the kids raised." The Adventurer and Explorer Teams emptied their pockets of change every day after lunch. To get the change, they searched through couch cushions at home and picked up every stray cent during their daily travels. Some students also sacrificed snack money to donate to the cause. The Explorer Team ultimately raised $223.90 and the Adventurer Team raised $368.36, bringing the total amount raised to $592.26. The teachers chipped in their own money to bring the total to an even $600. Bryant gave the team that raised the most money a "Peace-A" Party onApril 15. Sixth-grade teacher Elizabeth Richards said, "The students definitely have a greater respect formoney nowthat they understand that a penny couldmean the world to someone who doesn't have anything."