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Pennies for peace

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In a second-grade classroom in rural Montana, students are learning that things most Americans take for granted, things as small as a penny, can change lives in other countries. 

By collecting spare change from around the house and asking family, friends and other students to save their pennies, Sibley Ligas’ second-graders have raised more than $200 to improve education for children in Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

The money will go to the Central Asia Institute’s Pennies for Peace program, which takes change collected by American schoolchildren and uses the funds to build schools and buy school supplies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to the program’s website, “While a penny is virtually worthless, in impoverished countries a penny buys a pencil and opens the door to literacy.”

And while they’re helping others, Ligas’ students get plenty of practice counting and adding, experience that helps the kids grasp mathematical concepts. They also get a geography lesson and learn about life for their peers in the Middle East. But most importantly, Pennies for Peace is a lesson in giving, Ligas explained.

“The kids are excited about giving so other kids can have what they have,” she said. “It’s a tough year, (but) our kids are amazing … they just keep bringing pennies in.”

The class set a goal to raise $300 this year for Pennies for Peace, and on Thursday afternoon, Ligas’ second-graders sat quietly, carefully counting pennies into stacks of 10 and lining the stacks into row after row of gleaming copper. By the end of the school day, the class had tallied well more than $200 and still had more coffee cans heavy with change to count.

No matter how bad the economy, Ligas said she’s always amazed at how generous the Arlee community can be. 

“The fact that our community gives to another country — I’m just speechless about it,” she said. 

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