Susan Lettis has been serving in the Peace Corps as an English teacher in Benin since graduating from CCS in 2005. Earlier this year, Lettis submitted a proposal to construct a three-classroom schoolhouse in Pikire through the Peace Corps Partnership Program.

By February, the project had been given the green light and Susan and her mother Robin Lettis began working to raise the $13,970 they would need to pay for the schoolhouse’s construction.

Robin Lettis said she mailed out about 100 letters, handed out approximately 200 fliers and gave presentations to various community groups like Rotary, the Lions Club and the Cooperstown Ecumenical Youth Group seeking donations for the project.

People donated through the Peace Corps website (www.peacecorps.gov) and through the Presbyterian Church’s "Project Benin" fund and just over two months after the fundraising began, the Lettis women had surpassed their goal and were already working on a second project.

"I was so happy when I found out that the project was funded, and I was even happier to hear that people are continuing to donate to the "project Benin" fund that the Presbyterian Curch has set up," Robin Lettis wrote via email. "Although nothing has been formally proposed yet, we are thinking about another school building in a different community."

Lettis wrote that communities in Benin simply don’t have the facilities to conduct regular classes and don’t have enough money to construct them.

"Classes must be scheduled at all hours of the day, light permitting since there is no electricity, and on weekends. Sometimes if there is no space and no more time in the schedule, certain classes will just not be held," she wrote. This causes a problem because students are still tested on the subject matter when they take the national exams, she said.

John Hrivnak, an executive assistant with the Peace Corps Office of Private Sector Initiatives, confirmed that the project had been fully funded by April 13, after being on the website for about two months.

"It is on the quick side, for that size of a project," he said. He said they cannot divulge how the donations came in, whether it came as numerous smaller donations or a few larger ones.

Robin Lettis said her daughter was ecstatic when she heard the project had been funded. Some projects languish for years, she said, and others never happen.

"I cannot tell you how ecstatic she was," Robin said. "You may have heard her screaming all the way from Benin."

Robin said she thinks one person donated $10,000 through the website, although she doesn’t know for sure. She said she had been following the project’s progress online, but noticed after not checking for a couple days that the needed amount had dropped precipitously from $10,625 to just $625.

"I’m tremendously grateful to them, but I’m just as grateful to somebody who gave me $5," she said.

The church wrote the check for the last $625 from donations made through it, but still has about $5,000 to put towards a second project.

Robin Lettis stressed that remaining money will indeed be going toward a second project of some sort and not a different purpose simply because the initial project has been funded.

She said she’s also continuing to fundraise for the effort and continues to meet with any group interested in hearing her speak.

While helping the people of Benin receive educations is the primary benefit of the school, Susan Lettis wrote that the project also opens up opportunities for cultural exchanges between the communities there and Cooperstown.

"I hope this project acts as a starting point for the Cooperstown community to learn more about Benin and West Africa in general," she wrote.