Taking Education Abroad group to hold fundraisers for Greg Mortenson's Central Asia Institute

HOUGHTON -- Taking Education Abroad, also known as T.E.A., a student group organized at Michigan Tech University last year to raise money for Greg Mortenson's Central Asia Institute, for building schools in remote areas of Central Asia, is planning several fund-raising events for this semester.*

The first one will be a Bake Sale to be held from 9 a.m. to about noon on Saturday morning, Oct. 17, during Michigan Tech's D80 Conference in the Memorial Union Ballroom.**

The second will be a Trick or Treat event on Halloween. Student members will be handing out candy and copies of Mortenson's book, Three Cups of TEA, to children in the local community. Students and faculty members from Michigan Tech and Finlandia have been asked to donate used copies of the book. The group welcomes donations from anyone in the community. The book collection is being extended through November so that anyone who goes home at Thanksgiving may still bring the book back and donate it.***

Third, group members will donate their time from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7, for Bagging Groceries at Econo-Foods.

Finally, Taking Education Abroad members will hold a Christmas Present Raffle, with ticket sales from Dec. 1-10. The prize will be announced closer to the time of the Raffle.

* In 2008 Greg Mortenson spoke to students and faculty from both Michigan Tech and Finlandia, who had read his book on building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Inspired by the book and Greg's visit, students formed the group, Taking Education Abroad, or T.E.A. Please note that it has no connection with any other groups identified by the letters T.E.A. See our Keweenaw Now Feb. 5, 2009, article on the group and their work.

** Michigan Tech's D80 Conference is a celebration of efforts to to solve issues that confront the world's poorest 80%. Visit their Web site for more information.

*** If you have a copy of Three Cups of Tea to donate to the Taking Education Abroad group for re-distribution, please contact Jessica Banda at jebanda@mtu.edu or Keweenaw Now at andersm@pasty.com.

For more on Greg Mortenson's Central Asia Institute and their work, visit their Web site.