Fifteen Highland Park teenagers were awarded the Grand Championship at the International Future Problem Solvers conference Sunday for their efforts to translate and send books to children in Afghanistan.
The Pages for PEACE at Elm Place Middle School, beat out hundreds of others in a competition involving schools from four countries.
The project was started last fall as the students’ response to the events of Sept. 11.
The middle school and high school students from Highland Park raised $7,000 to buy, translate and ship 1,400 books to Afghanistan. The books arrived there on June 2 and will be distributed to schools throughout the country.
The students have continued to get donations of books from publishers and plan to make a second shipment after they raise more money.
After the project was described and the trophy was awarded at the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs, Conn., thousands of people in the indoor arena gave the students and their teacher, Suzanne Greenwald, a standing ovation.
“It’s really an honor for Highland Park and Illinois,” Greenwald said after returning from Connecticut. “It’s just amazing that 15 kids can do this.”