seniors walking across america: DAY 97: HIGHWAY 62, COLORADO DESERT - VIDAL, CALIFORNIA - PARKER, ARIZONA

seniors walking across america: DAY 97: HIGHWAY 62, COLORADO DESERT - VIDAL, CALIFORNIA - PARKER, ARIZONA

All Because Of A Little Book

After I wrote The Power Of A Penny, I traveled to Africa to experience the amazing things I had learned about a humanitarian organization called, Koins for Kenya did with the money I donated to their cause from the sale of my books. After spending two weeks in rural Kenya with people living in absolute poverty, my heart was touched and I now how a love for these people, most of who I don't even know their names.

While we were in Kenya, a twelve year old boy named Charo died under a mango tree fifty feet from where our group was sitting one night. He and his family had come into the village where we were staying after walking for several hours trying to get medical help. They had been turned away from two other villages and were headed to the dispensary in Mynzeni to get help, but didn't make it in time. I can't describe the feeling of sadness I had the next day as we traveled to the village of Gona where Charo was from to deliver pencils to his classmates. They were so grateful and happy to see us, but we knew they were mourning the loss of their friend. While we were there, the villagers presented the leader of our expedition with an envelope containing ten percent of what it would cost to build a new school in their village. The Koins for Kenya foundation requires the villagers to come up with this amount before they ever consider helping them with a project. This amount is a huge sacrifice for the villagers because most of them make an average of $300 per year. But they know that educating their children is the only way they can break the cycle of poverty they are living in. Not only were they willing to donate the money,they committed to provide all of the unskilled manual labor required in the building of the school.

I was horrified when I saw some of the classrooms where these kids where attending. They were little more than dirt, bug covered floors with dry mud walls topped by a thatched roof. During the rainy season, the roof leaks, and the walls collapse after turning to mud. The few classrooms that did have desks had four and five children squished onto a desk built to sit three students.

I was so touched by Charo's classmates, I was inspired to come home and donate a tree to the Tree's for Charity Gala in my town in honor of Charo. While I was in Kenya, I had several girls from the secondary school help me made beaded heart ornaments to decorate the tree. I also brought home handmade huts like the one Charo lived in and little Kenyan people made from banana leaves. There is a colorful garland was made from the fabric of the conga skirts the women wear. The women didn't have anything to decorate for the ceremony when they turned the money over for their school. So they had all snipped a little bit of material off of the top of their conga skirts and tied to a string which they put up to decorate the pathway in their village for us.

One hundred percent of the money from the sale of this tree will go towards a school for Charo's classmates. A two room school costs $10,000.00 to build. I don't anticipate making any where near that to go towards the school, but I do hope to add whatever I can towards the cost.

Here is a link that will give you more information about the Tree's for Charity Gala: http://www.koins4kenya.blogspot.com/.

There will be a free viewing for the public of all of the tree's this Friday and Saturday at the Western Park in Vernal, Utah. Monday night there will be a dinner and live auction where the tree will be sold. Anyone wishing to contribute to this cause without actually buying the tree can either donated directly to the Koins for Kenya foundation, www.koinsforkenya.org or call the Vernal City Chamber of Commerce and specify that you would like to add a tax deductible tree topper to Charo's tree.

My Heart Is In Africa

Yesterday the Vernal Express ran a story about the trip to Africa my son Brayden and I took.

To read the story, go to www.vernal.com and in the search box type: Students helping Students then click go.

When we arrived at the village where we stayed for ten days, one of my friends said, "Now your penny has come full circle." It truely did. I would love to write about all of the stories I heard about in Africa, but I fell so inadequate as a writer to be able to tell the stories like they should be told.

When I wrote The Power of a Penny, I never imagined that I would travel to Africa. It seemed so far away and like such a hard thing to do emotionally and physically. I'm glad the decision to go on the trip happened so fast because I probably would have changed my mind about going once I found out about all the shots I had to have, the malaria medicine I had to take that made me depressed and the chances I was taking by going to Africa. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done, but I am so grateful I got to go because I learned so much and experienced a deep love for the people I met. I may never get to go back to Africa, but the village of Gona will always have a place in my heart! I wish there was some way I could raise $l0,000.00 to give to Koins for Kenya so they could help the villagers build a school for those kids. I keep waiting for the quarterly check from Tate Publishing for the sales of my books. Even if it is just a penny, it will be a start to help with the school!

Anyone have an extra $10,000.00 sitting around? It would go towards a good cause. I will even make sure the school is named after you!

I have been focusing on the Christmas tree I'm going to decorate for the Tree's for Charity festival. I was stumped on how to decorate a tree with the things I brought back from Africa and yet have it still be Christmasy so someone would want to bid on it. After many hours of searching for ideas, I think I finally found what I want to do. I know it's only September, but I have several vacations, a family wedding and other things going on and before I know it, it's going to be November!

Going to Africa - all because of a little book about a penny

Tomorrow is the big day we set out to Salt Lake before flying out to Africa on Thursday. I'm excited to go to Kenya and meet all of the amazing people I have heard so much about.

I was talking to one of my friends and she said something about my book and it hit me, I am living the last chapter of my book, (kind of). We have saved the coins in the jar, and now we are going to use them to help the kids in Kenya for my son's Eagle scout project. I still believe it all happened for a reason - and we are about to find out why!

African Eagle Project

My fifteen year old son has finished all of his Scout requirements and is ready to work on his Eagle Project. We were trying to figure out what to do for his project and then I received a call from my friend, Brett VanLeeuwen. He started a humaniarian organization called Koins for Kenya. He told me he is going to Kenya in July and would love to take Brayden with him to build 100 desks for the school children there for his Eagle Project.

When I told Brayden about this idea, he beamed and said, "Let's do it!" As I have learned more about the children in the villages that he goes to, I know this is what Brayden should do. Over the past seven years, Koins for Kenya has gone over to an area of Kenya outside of Mombosa and built eighteen schools. In July they will finish two more school buildings, but they need desks so the school children aren't sitting in the dirt with chiggers and bot flies. (I got chiggars on my honeymoon in Florida and they were horrible! To see what bot flies do - go to YouTube and type in bot flies to see how bad they are.) Each desk costs $15 and sits three students.

We have received the funding for the desks, but now Brayden needs to raise enough money to get to Kenya to build them. It would be a life changing experience for Brayden and an experience he would never forget.

Right now he is selling roses and chocolates for Mother's day and he is also pre-selling African coin bracelets that he is going to make from the coins he will bring back from Africa to help pay for his way there.

If you are interested in helping him get to Africa, please email me:

powerofapenny@gmail.com

If you want to see pictures of the desks go to koinsforkenya.org.

Thanks for all of your love and support!

I got it!

I just got back from a trip to California, and I came home with one of the new pennies! My sister and I stopped at a CVS pharmacy to get drinks so we didn't have to pay so much for them at the hotel and I walked out of there with a brand new penny! I was so excited about it and my sister said she didn't know what the big deal was, "It was just a penny." (Maybe she needs to read my book, "The Power Of A Penny" again, because it is not JUST A PENNY!
The big deal is that you can't go to the bank and request a roll of these babies. They are randomly sent to different banks and they can't be ordered. Anyway, it made my whole trip!

Home on the Range

A couple of days ago, I found an old penny by our hay shed. When it rains or the wind blows, all kinds of old stuff magically appears after being buried for years. I brought the penny in and cleaned it up and to my wonderful surprise, it was a 1909 penny and it had an "S" on it. This was absolutely amazing because I wrote my book about this exact penny which is very rare. It isn't in great condition so I could never sell it but it means so much to me because it was in the last place I would have ever imagined!

I was telling an old farmer about this today and he said there was an old homestead once where I found the old penny. It was fun to talk to him and learn about the area before my barn was built there. I still think that penny was sent to find me!