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Elaine Hoover’s fourth-graders know him as Greg.

They saw him a few days ago at their school, looking like a Rotary Club member in his blue blazer as he lumbered from lunchroom to classroom to an outdoor recreation spot by a lake.

But they knew he was special. He had been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Two weeks ago , he journeyed to Pakistan to receive the country’s highest civil award for building schools where danger and violence reign.

And last week, he spent two days at their school, Greensboro’s Canterbury School.

He spoke to students at Canterbury — as well as five other private schools — and packed the Carolina Theatre on Thursday night for his talk about peace, the power of children and the importance of education in our war-on-terror world.

He’s Greg Mortenson, and he’s a big deal. He’s a mountaineer turned humanitarian who has helped build 78 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, educated 33,000 students and raised at least $8 million .

But to Hoover’s fourth-graders, like Anna Theall , he’s just Greg.

“He’s opened my heart,’’ she says.

Anna and her classmates had read “Three Cups of Tea,’’ Mortensen’s 2006 book about why he started building schools 16 years ago on the other side of the world after nearly dying climbing one of the world’s tallest peaks.

That’s the way Mortenson, a big man with a soft voice, has affected the world view of students at a private Episcopal school where tuition costs $12,500 a year.

They realize they have been given much, they say, and they believe much should be given back to the world they live in.

It’s like one of Mortenson’s favorite quotes. It’s from Mother Teresa: “What we are trying to do may be just a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.’’

Fourth-grader Graham Morphis believes he can be that missing drop.

“My teacher, Ms. Hoover, says children are the same the world over, and everyone should have the opportunity to learn,’’ Graham says. “And Greg says children can do anything, and a lot of little people coming together can make a big change in the world.’’

In their little world, our city of Greensboro, they have.

Fourth-graders like Graham spent months collecting the most ignored piece of currency in America — the penny — and continued a novel fundraising idea called “Pennies For Peace.’’

They collected pennies in buckets, jars, coffee cans and clay swans. They collected pennies in their homes, restaurants, offices and an antique store run by a student’s grandmother known as Ninny .

They collected pennies in parking lots and even scoured their rooms, purses, pockets and couch cushions for pennies to give to Mortenson’s charity, Central Asia Institute .

And anytime someone came to their house, they often asked, “Do you have any pennies in your pocket?’’

Meanwhile, they sold spin art door to door. They sold homemade cookies and brownies and lemonade they squeezed from tables parked at the end of their driveway.

They created a hallway mural, made tea cups out of clay and wrote a skit, a commercial, even a song as they got their entire school reading the book and collecting money.

The final tally: $10,114.07, a figure the fourth-graders can rattle off like the date of their birth.

The donation was matched by two other donations. So, during Friday’s chapel service, students heard their school gave Central Asia Institute $30,000 — enough to build and support one school for five years somewhere in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

“We can do more,’’ one student said Friday.

But will they? Here’s fourth-grader Sun Ho Chung.

“Before we started 'Pennies For Peace,’ I didn’t know about Pakistan or Afghanistan, but after reading the book, I felt I had to help,’’ he said.

“A lot of people get in danger just because they want an education, and they’re scared of land mines, and girls get beaten by just going to school, and in my mind, I should be doing more.

“Not just raising money,’’ Sun Ho says. “I should start my own charity to help other people. Look what Greg did.’’

Mortenson received $10,000 for his two-day visit from Canterbury’s community service fund. Security guards hovered around campus to keep away overzealous fans who called the school saying, “I’ve got to see him! He’s my life!’’ He stayed under an anonymous name at a local hotel because of the hysteria his book has caused.

Some people see him as America’s Mother Teresa. He simply sees himself as a 51-year-old father from Montana , a man who travels the world and gives 300 speeches a year about how children can change our world.

“I think kids can really do anything,’’ Mortenson says.

There’s a cynic in all of us who wonders if Mortenson’s lessons about peace and community service will resonate next year — or even next week.

But visit Elaine Hoover’s room. There, on a board, you’ll see a litany of ideas generated by her fourth-graders — all from reading the book written by Greg.

You can still communicate with others even though they speak a different language.

If you don’t make it to the top try to find another mountain.

It doesn’t matter what you look like.

Have hope.

And on and on and on.

“There will be a time in their life where they will be called to be a peacemaker,’’ said Hoover, a teacher for 32 years . “And I want them to have practice. If we can’t get this right, what else really matters?’’

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com.