Pete Benson is a normal 8-year-old boy with a big heart. But this Lorraine Elementary student is on a special mission: to collect and donate 20,000 pencils to children in Africa so they can go to school.

Benson was inspired to start this project while watching TV with his mother, Jenny Gentle-Benson, a few weeks ago. They were discussing how lucky he was to be able to go to school while his mom told him about a trip she took to Kenya where children were begging for money to get pencils to go to school.

Pete replied, “Seriously Mom? I will send them some pencils.” And from that conversation Pencils from Pete was born.

His goal is to collect 20,000 pencils before school ends, but so far he has already collected about 1,500.

Collection boxes have been set up at various businesses and schools, including Cartridge World on Ga. 138, Kids-r-Kids at Honey Creek, Los Charros at Honey Creek, All Around Pool Builders at Honey Creek, Peachtree Academy in Covington, Body Tech in Conyers, and Lorraine Elementary, Peek's Chapel Program Challenge, Heritage High School and Rockdale Career Academy.

Helping others is not a new concept to Pete. Gentle-Benson runs a non-profit called GENTLE Hope and Benson helps whenever he can. He also participates in his families Buckets of Love program. “We fill buckets with anything that would make a child smile and deliver them to children in the hospital that are terminally ill,” said his mother.
For more information, visit the Pencils-from-Pete Facebook page or email pencilsfrompete@aol.com