Even though she already sent a cheque to the Central Asia Institute, Liz Scroggins is still running into enthusiastic locals who want to give her their pennies. And she’s happy to keep collecting them.

In October, Scroggins launched a local version of the Pennies for Peace campaign, which benefits the non-profit Central Asia Institute in its efforts to support community-based education in remote areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, especially for girls.

Joining more than 3,000 schools, organizations and people around the world who have taken up the cause, Pemberton’s schools and 35 local businesses started collecting pennies for the campaign. Over a six-week period from the end of October to mid-December, the collectors raised $1,580.25 that Scroggins recently sent to the institute.

“Signal Hill Elementary School, in pennies alone, raised $543.50… They were very enthusiastic,” Scroggins said, and the businesses made a “huge contribution” to the efforts.

“I’m very thankful to everybody… It’s the people of Pemberton that raised the money,” she said.

Scroggins brought in the collecting jars and mailed a cheque, but she feels the donations don’t have to end just because the jars have been taken in. With people still expressing interest in contributing to the cause, she’ll continue accepting batches of change people have collected and she plans to send cheques to the institute every few months.

While Scroggins said she was “really, really pleased with the amount of money that came in,” since she never dreamed the collection here would raise more than $1,000, she feels the greater benefit of the campaign is to create awareness and help grow a generation of philanthropists and volunteers.

“That was important for me,” Scroggins said.

Participation in the campaign and reading Three Cups of Tea, the inspirational book co-written by Central Asia Institute co-founder and executive director Greg Mortenson, led some Signal Hill students to say they wanted to get even more involved, and some parents have said their children came home talking about Mortenson’s inspiring labours for education and peace, Scroggins said.

Three Cups of Tea describes Mortenson’s journey from a failed attempt to climb K2 in Pakistan to his work establishing schools and promote girls’ education in rural areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Reading the book prompted Scroggins to bring the Pennies for Peace campaign to Pemberton, and to help bring the book into the curriculum at Pemberton Secondary.

“I just wanted to do something to help, because it’s so moving,” she said.

The Rotary Club of Pemberton Centennial has donated money to buy two class sets of 30 books each for PSS and Signal Hill, and the elementary school has contributed $100 toward the purchase.

The Pennies for Peace program began with Westside Elementary School in River Fall, Wisc., in 1994. Mortenson’s mother was then the school’s principal, and the students responded to the plight of Pakistani children trying to learn by taking the initiative themselves and raising 62,340 pennies toward the construction of Mortenson’s first school.

For more information about the program and the Central Asia Institute, check out www.penniesforpeace.org and www.ikat.org. To donate future pennies in Pemberton, call Scroggins at (604) 894-2399.