These koalas are small in stature, but they are making a giant impact abroad.
Maspeth teen Vivienne Crowe and her friends have raised nearly $ 2,000 since April, peddling more than 900 of the pencil-hugging stuffed bears to battle a deadly worldwide disease.
The hot-selling critters — no taller than 2 inches — help Kiwanis International and UNICEF eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus.
The swift and painful disease, which is prevalent in developing countries, kills about 60,000 newborns every year.
“When I first read about it, I thought it was so sad that babies die from that,” said Vivienne, 13, an aspiring doctor.
“It’s a great feeling to know you’re saving babies by doing such a small thing,” she added.
The Our Lady of Hope eighth grader leads about 30 other National Junior Honor Society classmates in the ambitious cause.
They sold 500 pencils by going from classroom to classroom in the first two days — and the orders keep coming in.
“I really didn’t expect them to go that quickly,” she said. “I thought I would maybe sell 10 a day. It’s kind of crazy.”
“Some buy five or six of them at a time,” she added. “You don’t even know how many you’ve sold until you see everyone at school with them.”
Maternal and neonatal tetanus is still problematic in Sudan, Ethiopia and more than 20 other developing countries, where childbirth deliveries take place in unsanitary conditions, according to UNICEF.
Each $ 2 pencil gets at least one mother vaccinated, said J.P. DiTroia, who works for Kiwanis and UNICEF’s joint mission and just ordered another 2,000 bears for the kids to sell.
“It’s just overwhelming,” Vivienne’s mom, Geri, said of the success of her daughter’s feel-good mission. “The fact that they’re saving lives through koalas is shocking.”
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