HERMITAGE

Watching a late-night cable television news program gave Kathleen Crisan a jolt of divine inspiration.

"The report was on how happy women were to now be attending school in Afghanistan," said the member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Hermitage.

"They said there is only one pencil in each classroom, and they were happy to share it. I thought collecting pencils and sending them over there would be a good thing for our church to do."

Mrs. Crisan took her idea to Holy Trinity Pastor Nancie Reeves.

"She was thrilled by the idea," said the Hermitage resident of her pastor's reaction.

"We sent fliers home with church members, and Sunday school teachers kept a tally in their classes of how many pencils were gathered," Mrs. Crisan said.

"We decided to collect the pencils during the month of May, because Sunday school is over then, and we gave a prize to the person who collected the most pencils."

The church's Sunday school classes are divided by age, she said.

"The children were really excited to help," Mrs. Crisan said. "Many of them go to school on the first day with a dozen pencils, and these kids don't have any."

To encourage participation by the entire congregation, the basket of collected pencils was placed in the church.

"We asked for unsharpened pencils, due to the fact of how airlines are with sharp points," Mrs. Crisan said. "We also got some pens, given by the Army, which we also counted. Any sharpened pencils we received, I just resharpened and put in the pews for use in the church."

Mrs. Crisan said it took her about an hour to wrap the 1,350 pencils into bundles of 12. "People have added to the collection," she said of the additional writing instruments amassed after what was to be the last collection date at the end of May.

The next phase of the plan involved calling the office of the bishop in Seneca, Pa.

"His secretary should be able to give me the name of someone to contact about where to send the pencils, maybe to someone with Lutheran World Relief," Mrs. Crisan said.

The church plans to send pencils to Afghanistan through the help of Global Relief or Lutheran Brotherhood organizations.

Along with the gathered writing instruments, the church plans to send one large pencil sharpener along with smaller sharpeners for individual students.

Before taking an early retirement, Mrs. Crisan was a teacher for 30 years in Farrell Area School District. "I taught sixth grade, first grade and kindergarten, but my biggest time was spent in first," she said. "I now devote my time to the church."