November 2017

Page 38

CHANGING THE WORLD ONE PENCIL AT A TIME By Andrea Louise Thomas

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uch a simple implement, the pencil, but its potential is far reaching. No one would know this more than Cindy Rochstein, Founder and CEO of Pencils Community. Her Seaford based charity collects new and used pencils and other stationery items. She and her team of volunteers then repackage these donations and distribute them to disadvantaged children in Australia and around the world. This burgeoning social enterprise has now partnered with other charitable organizations and together they are quickly becoming a humanitarian tour de force.

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38 | PENINSULA

November 2017

It all started by accident. Rochstein was cleaning out her daughter’s desk at the end of a school year and found masses of used stationery items. (Many parents would be familiar with this scenario.) She didn’t have the heart to throw them away because she knew they would end up in landfill. As chance would have it, a friend was travelling to visit an orphanage in Vietnam so she asked if he would to take some pencils. Before his departure, she made a facebook post asking friends for donations. Hundreds of pencils arrived and they went on to Vietnam. This is just one of many such stories that have created an ongoing domino effect.


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