NASHVILLE — As Elizabeth Wray prepared to step in front of a crowd of thousands Sunday to give away the biggest gift of her life, it was not public speaking jitters that had her concerned.
The Girls Preparatory School senior simply didn’t want the $60,000 check she was there to present to overshadow the humanitarian work the money was going to support.
“I just don’t want to make a big deal about us and GPS, and ‘Look what we did,’” the 18-year-old said.
Along with GPS sophomore Alizeh Ahmad, Ms. Wray presented the money to New York Times-bestselling author Greg Mortenson, who spoke at an independent schools conference in Nashville.
Mr. Mortenson, who wrote “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace … One School at Time,” directs the Central Asia Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building schools to educate children, especially girls, in the most remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Image courtesy Greg Mortenson, Central Asia Institute -- Students read books at the Torghu Balla Girls School in the Gol Valley of northern Pakistan.
Before the girls’ presentation, Ms. Ahmad timed Ms. Wray as she practiced, so the short speech would not go over her allotted three minutes.
A man in an olive-colored suit walked by the front of the conference room, causing Ms. Wray to stop midsentence.
Putting her head in her hands, she closed her eyes and laughed.
“I cannot believe that’s Greg Mortenson,” she said.
An ambitious goal
Students and faculty at GPS decided to join Mr. Mortenson’s efforts last fall, after many of them read his book, either on their own or for required summer reading.
For the past 25 years, GPS has held a festival called Robin Hood, where students raise money for one week to support various charitable causes.
Typically the event raises about $14,000, which is distributed to 30 or so organizations around Chattanooga.
This year, the girls decided they wanted to raise the $50,000 it would take to build and endow one of Mr. Mortenson’s schools with furniture, textbooks and school supplies for five years.
“When they proposed it, I kind of chucked and said to myself, ‘There is no chance that you can raise that much money,’ but I figured if they wanted to try, I wouldn’t rain on their parade,” GPS Headmaster Randy Tucker said.
But by doing things such as selling trinkets from around the world and giving up paychecks from their after-school jobs, the girls exceeded their goal by $10,000.
“They certainly set a record,” Mr. Tucker said. “In 21 years, that was probably the most proud I have been of the school and the kids.”
Biology teacher Jenise Gordon, faculty sponsor of Robin Hood week, said seeing her students give of themselves was inspiring.
“To see the kids tear up about what they’ve accomplished; to know that somewhere halfway around the world in a war-torn country girls can go to school for the first time, it’s overwhelming,” she said.
Midway through Robin Hood week, GPS officials realized Mr. Mortenson would be speaking at the joint Council for Advancement and Support of Education and National Association of Independent Schools conference in Nashville. They secured a spot for two students to present the gift.
“All the stars aligned, and everything just fell into place,” Ms. Gordon said.
Education is the key
Mr. Mortenson’s passion for his cause came about after a failed attempt in 1993 to climb K2, the second-highest mountain in the world, located along Pakistan’s border.
Villagers in the Pakistan town of Korphe nursed him back to health after he retreated from his mountain adventure, exhausted and emaciated, he said.
After watching the children in the small town writing their school lessons with sticks in the dirt, Mr. Mortenson said he made “a rash promise” to a little girl that he would come back one day and build her a school.
By 1997, he had fulfilled that promise by selling his car and many of his possessions to raise money. To date, Mr. Mortenson has built more than 60 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan that educate tens of thousands of children, many of them girls.
“If you educate a boy, you educate an individual. If you educate a girl, you educate a community,” Mr. Mortenson said Sunday. “Education, especially of girls, is what will change the world.”
The African proverb has guided him through death threats from mullahs and hate mail from Americans after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, he said.
And despite the original subtitle on the first edition of his hardback book: “One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism,” Mr. Mortenson said the current subtitle is much more fitting.
“I do this to promote peace,” he told a capacity crowd at the Renaissance Nashville hotel.
After Mr. Mortenson finished speaking, Ms. Wray and Ms. Ahmad left their front-row seats and made their way to the stage, oversized cardboard check in tow.
“My family is from Pakistan, and because I’ve visited numerous times and seen some of the northern areas, Mr. Mortensen’s work has really touched and inspired me,” Ms. Ahmad, 15, said. “As a Pakistani, I feel like we owe a lot of things to this gentleman for what he’s done for the country.”
Applause broke out as both girls beamed and shook the author’s hand.
Mr. Mortensen said he was humbled by the GPS gift, especially because it came from an all-girls school.
“He’s coming to Chattanooga and said he wants to visit our school,” Ms. Wray said later, as she stood in line to get her copy of the book signed.
Even after receiving many hugs from GPS faculty and parents, and congratulations from strangers at the conference, Ms. Wray, the Robin Hood chairwoman, took no credit.
“I was just really honored to hear Mr. Mortenson speak,” she said.
