We would like to put out a big thank you to all of our family and friends who donated money to our favorite charity, Pennies for Peace.

We wanted to have an awesome 14th birthday party. Instead of gifts we asked our family, neighbors and friends to give donations to this charity.

The Pennies For Peace campaign is a program of the Central Asia Institute (CAI), founded by Greg Mortenson, author of the New York Times bestseller "Three Cups of Tea."

Mr. Mortenson's organization provides community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls in remote villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Founded in 1996, CAI has built nearly 100 schools and served more than 28,000 students, 14,000 of whom are girls.

When you educate a boy, you educate an individual, when you educate a girl, you educate a village! (we love that proverb)

We were so inspired by Mr. Mortenson's book.

How can a penny bring peace? It doesn't buy much at Culbreth, but in villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan, it can buy a pencil, start an education and transform a life. That pencil can empower a child to read, write and learn, and encourage children to turn away from violence through education.

The pennies we collected can make a real difference:

1 penny = a pencil

2 pennies = an eraser

15 pennies = one notebook

$20 = one student's supplies for a year

$300 = one advanced student's annual scholarship to high school

$500 = one teacher's annual salary

We collected $460.95 the night of our party. It was amazing. By asking for pennies, every child can be a philanthropist. We all can contribute loose change. We had more than $80 in change.

We need to thank Tim Green from Harrington bank in Southern Village, who counted all of that change in his coin-counting machine. Bank of America wanted us to roll all of them! (Ugh!)

Our 3-year-old neighbor, Casey Greene, came over with her piggy bank and dumped all her coins into the donation pail. What a great sound hearing all those pennies!

Then on Monday night, we were lucky enough to get to meet Greg Mortenson himself. He is such an inspiring person.

We were standing in the reception line when a UNC student escorted us to the front of the line to meet him. Mr. Mortenson was so excited that we had heard of the Pennies for Peace program and that we had raised money for this cause. It was such an awesome feeling handing over the big check to him.

We had a great party but an even better gift for him : the gift of giving other students in Pakistan or Afghanistan the chance to have what we take for granted here at home: an education.

OUR VIEW

Kate Minogue

Alexa Phillips