Pennies for Peace
Friday, March 12th, 2010Submitted by The Fort Plain Free Library.
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The Fort Plain Free Library offers area residents the opportunity to participate in the Central Asia Institute’s worldwide Pennies for Peace campaign running through the end of March, 2010.
Pennies for Peace helps well-known author Greg Mortenson promote peace through education by building schools and libraries, most of them for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The program began in 1994 in Wisconsin at which time students collected 62,340 pennies to help Mortenson, author of “Three Cups of Tea” and “Stones Into Schools”, build his very first school in Pakistan.
How can a penny bring peace? It doesn’t buy much in Fort Plain. But in the villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan, it can buy a pencil, start an education, and transform a life. In a region where terrorist organizations recruit uneducated, illiterate children, that penny can help to empower a child to read, write, learn, and think for himself. The pennies that are collected can add up to make a real difference.
1 penny = a pencil
2-3 pennies = an eraser
15 pennies = one notebook
$20 = one child’s school supplies for one year
$50 = one treadle sewing machine and supplies
$100 = maternal healthcare supplies for one year
$300 = one advanced student’s annual scholarship
$600 = one teacher’s annual salary
$5,000 = support for existing school for one year
$50,000 = one school building and support for up to five years.
There will be a Spaghetti Dinner on Tuesday, March 16th 2010 at Parillo’s in Historic Southside Amsterdam.
•To provide for the rescue and care of abused and/or unwanted horses and other farm animals, which if not rescued would lead to the physical and/or mental detriment of the animal.
The Schenectady Firefighters will be hosting their First Annual Run For Your Life Fundraiser to benefit the American Heart Association on Saturday, March 27th 2010.
Products from 
Eleven selections of cheese products including gift boxes, single eight ounce bars of flavored cheddar, and cheese curd are offered in addition to nine varieties of fruit pies available in regular or sugar-free versions. 
Solid dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate bunnies as well as two flavors of quarter pound chocolate candy blocks – dark and milk chocolate – are also being sold.
Submitted by the Cranesville Fire Department, Amsterdam.
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