Friday, Aug. 31, 2001 | 4:02 a.m.
For Jolene Chen, donated pennies amounted to a summer rich in lessons and travel.
The Clark High School senior was one of four students in the country chosen by World Vision, a Christian relief organization, to visit Tanzania.
Each student chosen raised at least $500 during the 30-hour Famine, an international event in which students annually raise funds to end world hunger.
Chen has raised money for World Vision's fund-raiser for the past five years. She generally asked her parents, friends, neighbors and church members for small donations to meet her $200 goal.
This year she thought bigger. She asked the same trusty group of givers as well as school friends, teachers and businesses.
Her far-reaching efforts paid off, but it wasn't easy.
Some would joke with the persistent Chen and insist they only had a few cents.
She took the pennies every time.
"That 2 cents can make a difference in somebody's life," Chen said.
After the 30 hours were over, Chen poured out the contents of her heavy change bag and began to count the pennies, nickels and dimes she'd collected.
She knew she had passed her traditional $200 goal, but she never dreamed she would more than double it.
The elusive $500 goal was achieved by one thin dime. She had collected $500.10.
She quickly sent in her application and essay, and then forgot about the contest.
There were other issues to worry about such as college applications, graduation, eventually leaving home for college in August and -- more importantly -- how big her dorm room would be.
Then the call came.
Chen's upbeat attitude and gushing enthusiasm immediately made an impact on Karen Kartes, media promotions manager for World Vision in Federal Way, Wash.
"She just sparkled over the phone," Kartes said. "We knew if she could do that over the phone, she'd be perfect for what we needed in person."
Annually more than 10,000 students from around the country participate in World Vision's Famine program and only four are chosen each year for their contributions to the community and their potential for service.
Chen's hastily written essay about her ideas for helping the hungry touched Kartes.
"You can tell when someone really cares," Kartes said. "There's a typical tone to some of the essays, but (Chen's) was sincere. She had feeling."
The program is intended to expose high school students to some of the more pressing problems in third-world countries.
"These are real situations that exist and the students see for themselves what the money they raised does for these people," Kartes said. "It doesn't take much."
For $3, seeds can be provided for a family to grow food to eat and sell. A few dollars more will provide a stove for a family and a few more than that can bring medical supplies to poorly equipped hospitals.
When Chen learned she was selected to travel to Africa, she had no reservations.
She packed her luggage, said goodbye to her parents and flew to Tanzania with a group of other like-minded teenagers from middle-class American families.
They were stunned by what they found.
"I realized that there were not just certain patches of poverty, like we have in America, but the whole nation was in poverty," Chen said. "It opened my eyes to how much I have to be thankful for."
The teens traveled by bus, which lumbered over dirt roads to the crowded villages, Chen said. When they stepped off the bus, women and children would sing songs they composed for the occasion.
"We were treated like celebrities," Chen said.
The villagers excitedly welcomed the teens into their homes, Chen said.
The wood-and-earth huts were smaller than the dorm room Chen would live in this semester.
Once in the huts smoke from the stove's wood fire hung in the stale air.
"They had so little," Chen said. "But they had so much joy. I didn't know who was happier, us or them. They experienced joy in their lives everyday."
While working with the Tanzanians Chen said she saw up-close the power that her 2 cents gathered here and there could do.
The teens helped to install an easier method of retrieving clean water from a nearby water source and were exalted by the villagers, she said.
"They had to travel two hours to get water -- just water," Chen said. "It was simple what we did but they didn't have the (tools)."
Coming home was bittersweet. She is thankful, she said, for all that she has, but continues to feel a tug of emotion from Tanzania.
"I'm in less of a rush now that I'm back," Chen said. "I try to give all of my attention to people that I'm talking to and listen to them. Everybody deserves to feel that."
It took a small village in Africa to teach Chen a lesson that she hopes will always stay with her -- that everyone is capable of giving and receiving joy no matter the circumstances.
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