OSWEGO, New York – Best-selling author Greg Mortenson is coming to Oswego October 28th and tickets to the much-anticipated event will be going on sale Monday, July 12th. Mortenson will be making a special appearance to a few schools during the day before making a presentation in the evening at the SUNY Oswego Campus Center. His first book, “Three Cups of Tea,†is the selected book for Oswego’s first community-wide read initiated by Oswego Reads. Tickets may be purchased online only by going to the link on the Oswego Reads Web site at www.oswegoreads.com.
“Greg Mortenson is one of the most in-demand speakers in the country,†said Bill Reilly, owner of the river’s end bookstore and committee member of Oswego Reads, the group spearheading the community read. “It is a real coup that we were able to enlist Greg to come to Oswego and I anticipate tickets to go quickly.â€
Also on July 12th, approximately 500 free student tickets will be available for students residing in or attending the Oswego City School District when an adult ticket is purchased. This offer is not available online.
To receive this offer, it is necessary to contact the Oswego City School District Superintendent’s office between 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on or after Monday, July 12, at 341-2001 to acquire student tickets. There is a limit of two free tickets and proof of residency is required.
Each week, a table with information about the community read and the Pennies for Peace project as well as the selected book, “Three Cups of Tea,†will be at the Oswego Farmers’ Market, in front of the river’s end bookstore. Visitors to the Oswego Reads table will be able to take a chance to win a pair of tickets to hear Mortenson speak at the SUNY Oswego Campus Center. Three winners of a pair of tickets will be drawn at the kick-off event, August 31st, in the Community Room at the Oswego Public Library.
About the book
Three Cups of Tea has sold 3.6 million copies, been published in 41 countries and has been a New York Times bestseller for more than three years since its release. The book was named Time Magazine Asia Book of the Year and Mortenson’s newest book, “Stones into Schools,†released in December of 2009, debuted as #2 on the New York Times bestseller list.
Three Cups of Tea is available for three age levels – adult, young adult and children. Locally, it is available at the river’s end bookstore in Oswego.
To learn more, go to www.threecupsoftea.com.
About Mortenson
Mortenson, a nurse and mountain climber turned advocate for peace and education, has established more than 131 schools in rural and often volatile and dangerous regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. These schools provide education to more than 58,000 children, including 48,000 girls where few education opportunities existed before.
Mortenson believes that global education is the key to global peace, and he has been working on that concept for nearly two decades, one school at a time. In 1996, he co-founded the Central Asia Institute and serves as executive director. According to Mortenson, he has made 38 trips to oversee the building of schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, totaling 76 months over the last 17 years.
His work has not been without difficulty. In 1996, he survived an eight-day armed kidnapping by the Taliban in Pakistan and escaped a 2003 firefight with feuding Afghan warlords by hiding for eight hours under putrid animal hides in a truck going to a leather-tanning factory.
In 2009, Mortenson received Pakistan’s highest civil award, Sitara-e-Pakistan (“Star of Pakistanâ€) for his humanitarian effort to promote girls education in rural areas for 15 years.
The community-wide event is sponsored by Pathfinder Bank.
