Brookdale alumni officer promotes service project
End result will be construction of new school in Central Asia
BY PATRICIA YOCZIS Correspondent
Little did Kirsten Kristensen know that a segment of ABC-TV's "Good MorningAmerica" would lead her to spearhead a fundraising campaign to build a school in the mountainous region of Central Asia.

During a program inMarch 2006, Kristensen heard the word "tea" while "GMA" hostess Diane Sawyer was interviewing Greg Mortenson and talking about his best-selling book, "Three Cups of Tea."

Mortenson co-authored the book with David Relin, an award-winning journalist.

"I immediately was interested because of my business, Tea 4 U, and because I'm a tea coach and lecturer on tea," Kristensen said. "Then I heard about his project that builds schools to educate children, especially girls, in remote villages. I got the book, read it and knew I had to get involved."

"Three Cups of Tea," subtitled "One Man's Mission to Promote Peace, One School at a Time," tells the real-life story of Mortenson, a mountaineer from Montana who in 1993 made an unsuccessful attempt to climb Pakistan's K-2, the world's second-highest mountain.

Mortenson was injured in the attempt and was nursed back to health by the villagers of Korphe in northern Pakistan. In gratitude for the villagers' care, he promised to return and to fulfill their wish of building a school for the children, including girls.

Not only did Mortenson fulfill his promise, Kristensen explained, but he founded the Central Asia Institute that to date has built about 58 schools, vocational centers for teacher training, a rural mobile health clinic stressing maternal health care, and drinking-water projects. While mainly providing education in Pakistan andAfghanistan, projects are also in Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan.

Kristensen said the cost of building and maintaining a school for five years through the Central Asia Institute, a nonprofit 501(c)3 charity, is $35,000. As first vice president of the Brookdale Community College Alumni Association, Middletown, she is charged with coordinating a service project. Also, as a previous president of the school's honor society, the Alpha Pi Theta chapter of the Pi Theta Kappa International Honor Society, she knew they also required a service project.

"I went to the honor society's adviser, Dr. Shahin Pirzad, and he had heard about Mortenson," she said. "We presented the project to build a school in honor of the Brookdale community. The boards of both organizations agreed and named the project 'Knowledge is Power; Three Cups of Tea.' "

Kristensen was named the service project manager of the two-year initiative that will end in May. The project is very close to reaching its goal of $35,000, she said.

The money was raised through various events, including the proceeds from a Black andWhite Ball, the raffle of a guitar signed by Bruce Springsteen, and Commerce Bank coin banks placed in local businesses labeled "Spare Your Change for Change." Fund-raising tea parties were held, tea card donations and the sale of the book "Three Cups of Tea" contributed, too.

In January 2007, Mortenson was awarded the Brookdale Community College Global HumanitarianAward. OnMay 10, 2007, GregMortenson Day was held at Brookdale to honor his efforts in education and peace, as well as to spread the message of his work. At that time an initial payment of $23,000 was given to him for the Brookdale sponsored school, said Kristensen.

As a personal service project, she donates the proceeds from certain Tea 4 U tea products to Brookdale school projects. Also, for her 50th birthday in June, she is requesting a donation be made to the service project in lieu of gifts.

After the project ends, Kristensen said, the Brookdale service project will be maintained through an initial $5,000 fund established by the honor society for future donations.

Doris Hudak, immediate past president of the BrookdaleAlumniAssociation, said, "I personally believe Greg Mortenson's work in education is the only positive thing in the last 25 years that has a chance to change the world. Education is so important and when you educate women, you change society for the better because women come back to the community and educate others."

Hudak met Mortenson and called him "an extremely humble man with a passion for what he is doing." She has traveled to Central Asia and said the title of his book refers to a business practice there.

"You drink three cups of tea. The first cup, you are a stranger, the second cup a friend, and the third cup, family," she explained.

Other Brookdale clubs participating in the service project included history and political science, Water Watch, Campus Crusade for Christ, the student governance organization, chess, the Democratic club, women's student organizations, Circle K and Psi Beta. The Northern Monmouth Branch of the American Association of University Women contributed, too.

For more information about the Brookdale service project, click on www.3cupsoftea Brookdale.info.

For copies of "Three Cups of Tea" click on www.threecupsoftea.com, and 7 percent of the sale will go to a girls' education scholarship. For the entire proceeds of $15 per book benefiting the project, click on www.tea4u.com or call Doris Hudak at (732) 842-0785.