One man‘s mission/Greg Mortenson

Aug. 31, 2008

Sally Stilwill is a Three Cups of Tea groupie and she’s not afraid to admit it.
After reading Greg Mortenson’s book in 2007 in a book club, she flew to Washington D.C. and shelled out $350 so that she and her daughter could personally hear and meet him in the flesh.
After his speech, Mortenson signed a copy of her daughter’s book, a New York Times bestseller, with this advice: “When your heart speaks, take good notes.”
Well, Mortenson spoke to Stilwill’s heart. Ever since, she’s been passionately interested in his cause: building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan as a way to affect the hearts of children before the Taliban gets to them first.
Now, Mortenson is coming to Traverse City for the TC Reads event, a program started in 2002. (The idea behind TC Reads is that everyone in town reads the same book at the same time.)
Stilwill seized on the opportunity of Mortenson’s September 21 visit and single-handedly organized a fundraiser for two reasons: she wanted even more people to personally hear his message and she wanted to raise as much money as possible in one day to go toward building another school. So far, she’s raised $18,000 and the event is still three weeks away.

A REMOTE VILLAGE
The subtitle of the book describes Mortenson’s mission: “One man’s mission to promote peace … one school at a time.”
The short version of Mortenson’s amazing story is that he attempted to climb K2 (the world’s highest mountain) in 1990 to honor his late sister, but failed and wandered dazed and hungry into a remote Pakistan village, where the people nursed him back to health. While he recuperated, he saw kids scribbling their letters and numbers in dirt, and promised the villagers that he’d build a school for them.
For the next three years, he lived in the mountain villages with the Balti people and wrote to wealthy people in Silicon Valley, asking for donations. Finally, Dr. Jean Hoerni, a Swiss physicist and Silicon Valley entrepreneur, came through with the initial funds to establish the Central Asia Institute. Dr. Hoerni has since died, but his legacy lives on with the construction of more than 55 schools.
Mortenson believes that education is crucial to push back the tide of Islamic extremism. For years, there’s been a vacuum of educational opportunities in Asia, which has been filled by madrassas. The madrassas’ academic curriculum varies, but all focus on Islamic education, such as memorizing the Koran. Some of the schools have taught a deep hatred of the West and have even trained Islamic terrorists. All of the madrassas schools exclude girls.
Not all the news is good. Mortenson’s schools have occasionally been targeted by the Taliban, in large part, because they allow girls to attend. He has also purposely chosen to build his schools in remote areas that have given birth to the Taliban. Stilwill said that Mortenson has worked with villagers to rebuild the schools and remains undeterred. (Mortenson was unavailable for an interview due to his intense schedule.)

OUTREACH PROJECTS
Stilwill said that both she and her sister were influenced to do good works by her parents, who died nine years ago in a plane crash. Her parents volunteered at the Rocky Boy Reservation, where her father taught Indians how to grow hydroponic plants and her mother started a library.
After their deaths, her sister founded The Pamoja Project, which supports grassroots Tanzanian organizations to help deal with the fallout of the AIDS epidemic, such as caring for orphans and providing schooling for ostracized AIDS children. They also do outreach, community health and micro-loan projects.
Stilwill has spent the last year spreading the word about Mortenson’s “Pennies for Peace” project. It involves schoolchildren learning about life in Central Asia and collecting pennies to build schools there. Toy Harbor in downtown TC has just kicked off a campaign. The Traverse City Area District Library will also collect pennies in conjunction with Mortenson’s visit.
Stilwill, a Traverse City educational consultant for college-bound kids, has worked the past eight months with the staff of the State Theatre and the Firefly restaurant to make the fundraiser a reality.
She said everyone she meets is moved by the cause once they hear about it.
“Here you have a war-torn country, this man, and this project. After people read his book, they feel compelled to help. The other methods for peace this country has tried haven’t worked, so why not this?”