Mortenson inspires Bozeman students

published on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 10:53 PM MST

By GAIL SCHONTZLER Chronicle Staff Writer

Greg Mortenson is a man who keeps his word.

NICK WOLCOTT/CHRONICLE Greg Mortenson and his daughter Amira dance as Bozeman students sing "Three Cups of Tea" at a packed Brick Breeden Fieldhouse on Wednesday morning. Mortenson, 51, was not feeling well Wednesday, but that didn’t stop him from keeping his promise to speak to 5,500 Bozeman students about his life’s work -- building schools for children in the poorest, most remote and dangerous areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“All of us can make a difference,” Mortenson told thousands of elementary and middle-school students at Montana State University’s Fieldhouse. “I know you’re going to go out and change the world.”

Mortenson lives in Bozeman and is a hero to many people across the country because of his bestselling book “Three Cups of Tea,” which chronicled his dogged efforts to “build peace, one school at a time.”

He told students how it all started 16 years ago when he failed in an attempt to climb K2, the world’s second highest mountain. He stumbled into Korphe, a tiny Himalayan village, where the people helped him recover.

There he saw children writing lessons in the dirt with sticks because they had no pencils, paper or school. He promised a little girl he’d build Korphe a school.

His struggle to raise money for his first school was going nowhere when a fourth-grade boy in Wisconsin donated money from his piggybank and showed him the power of pennies.

That led to Pennies For Peace, a program that encourages children to donate pennies to help others in their communities and around the world. This year, 4,400 schools are participating.

Today, Mortenson’s Central Asia Institute has established 131 schools and educates 58,000 children, many of them girls, in a part of the world where the Taliban has attacked hundreds of schools.

This fall Mortenson donated copies of his book to all 5,500 students in the Bozeman Public Schools.

Bozeman students started collecting their own pennies and by Wednesday, kids in kindergarten through eighth grade had donated nearly half a million pennies -- $4,978.44. Heather Hart, president of the nonprofit Bozeman Schools Foundation, presented Mortenson with a check. Bozeman High students had raised at least $180, said student president Hannah Parkes.

In Bozeman a penny may buy half a Tootsie Roll, Mortensen told kids, but in Afghanistan, it can buy a pencil.

Around the world, 120 million children cannot go to school because of slavery, poverty, discrimination and religious extremism, he said, and 78 million of them are girls.

When you grow up, what do you want that number to be, he asked.

“Zero!” kids shouted.

During his talks, Mortenson roamed back and forth across the stage, and engaged students by calling on them to answer questions.

His daughter, Amira, 13, talked about how kids in Pakistan may get up at 4 a.m. to do chores and then walk miles to school. His son Khyber, 9, said going to school is dangerous for kids in Afghanistan because of buried land mines.

Mortenson gave three talks to students, speaking at 9 a.m. before kindergartners to second-graders, at 10:30 a.m. to third- to eighth-graders, and after lunch to 1,800 students at Bozeman High School.

At each school event, Mortenson talked about other American kids doing extraordinary things to help others, like 11-year-old Zach Bonner of Florida, who started the Little Red Wagon Foundation and walked to Washington, D.C., to raise $74,000 for homeless children.

Each event ended with students singing “Three Cups of Tea,” written by Jake Fleming of Bozeman.

During a break between talks, Mortenson said that flying back from Indiana on Tuesday, he had felt “like someone was sitting on my chest.” He said he had trouble breathing and saw a doctor in Billings. The diagnosis was pericarditis, a viral infection in the lining around his heart.

“The best treatment is getting in front of kids,” he said.

He speaks at about 200 schools a year nationwide, from one-room school houses like Springhill to universities.

It has been years since he did a big event in Bozeman, Mortenson said, and one reason is that he doesn’t want to hurt the fundraising efforts of charitable groups that can only raise money locally.

Mortenson said he’d received some hate mail from people who alleged that “the public schools are sending money to help the children of terrorists.”

But most Montanans are hugely supportive, he said, donating more than $1 million this year to CAI.

Bozeman Schools Superintendent Kirk Miller said it was important for all Bozeman students to hear Mortenson, “to learn there is a large world community, and all of us have a responsibility to care for others.” The entire cost was covered by the Schools Foundation and CAI, he said.

After hearing Mortenson, several students and teachers sounded inspired.

“I didn’t know how many people didn’t have an education and how rough their life is,” said Ryen Meeks, 11, who donated $30 from her piggybank. “I thought to myself, ‘Wow, I really have a good life.’”

“It’s kind of cool to help out with those kids,” said Jaime Guerrero, 17. “I wanted to thank him for that.”

“I thought it was moving,” said Ethan Higgins, 15. “I had no idea women couldn’t go to school over there.”

“It makes me want to make a difference,” said Jesse Hoag, 15.

“I never step over a penny now,” said Michelle Brandner, a Whittier School reading teacher.

Gail Schontzler can be reached at gails@dailychronicle.com or 582-2633.

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