Dear Directors:

I have sent this message out to the youth services librarians but I wanted to make sure you are included as well.

For the third year, during the months of February and March, the New Jersey State Library, the New Jersey Library Association and libraries throughout New Jersey plan to honor the legacy of Abraham Lincoln, as part of the national Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commemoration, by collecting pennies for the Pennies for Peace Program. Last year, over $14,000 was collected by NJ libraries for this program.

The pennies collected this year from New Jersey's libraries will again be donated to Pennies for Peace which collects funds for the Central Asia Institute co-founded by Greg Mortenson, who is the subject of the bestselling biography, "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School At A Time." Mortenson has made it his life's work to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan to educate students where no schools existed.

The New Jersey State Library encourages New Jersey school and public libraries to join the campaign. * Register at the Pennies for Peace website http://www.penniesforpeace.org . You can receive free postcards and stickers and other materials. * Let us know too. Contact Gary Cooper at gcooper@PROTECTED * Design a creative donation container and send in pictures for posting on the State Library Website. Either post the photos to your Flickr account and send Gary Cooper the link or send us the digital photos and he'll post them for you. (gcooper@PROTECTED) * Get children and the community involved in contributing pennies. The Pennies for Peace website has lots of suggestions to get you started. * The libraries collecting the most pennies for New Jersey libraries will receive recognition at an event later in the spring.

To be eligible for this contest, libraries should collect the pennies, make a check made out to "New Jersey State Library" and send the check to the State Library by April 8, 2011. We'll send all the checks to Pennies for Peace.

Send your check to: Sheri Shafer, Chief Financial Officer NJ State Library PO Box 520 Trenton, NJ 08625-0520 Checks must be received at the State Library by April 1, 2011.

Media Inquiries: Gary Cooper email: gcooper@PROTECTED Contact for Libraries: Sharon Rawlins email: srawlins@PROTECTED.

The original Pennies for Peace was conceived by students in a Wisconsin elementary school in 1996. Since then, over 16 million pennies have been raised by over 700 schools in all 50 states, including over 10 million pennies in the past year. The program is designed to educate children about the world beyond their experience and show them that they can make a positive impact on a global scale, one penny at a time.

As of 2010, the Central Asia Institute has established more than 145 schools, educating over 64,000 children. Of those, 52,000 are girls who did not have much opportunity to attend school.

The following libraries/library systems are participating:

Ridge High School, Basking Ridge Bernards Township Public Library, Basking Ridge Carteret Public Library Cedar Grove Public Library Cranford Public Library Demarest Public Library Franklin Lakes Public Library Miller Branch Library, Jersey City Livingston Public Library Madison High School, Madison Middletown Township Library Milford Public Library Gloucester County Library System, Mullica Hill Neptune Public Library New Providence School District Libraries West Essex High School, North Caldwell Ocean City High School Roxbury Public Library, Succasunna Somerville Public Library Spotswood Public Library Oak Knoll Lower School, Summit Sayreville Public Library Milltown Public Library

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