A set of triplets sat in a booth at Manuel’s Mexican Food Restaurant on Jollyville Road during the Dec. 4 premiere party for Turk Pipkin’s new film, “One Peace at a Time,” taking in the glamour and the glitz cast off by local celebrities and planning their own way to make the world a better place.

Hill Country Middle School seventh-graders Elise, Nathan and Sophie Kunik want to help build a high school in Kenya. They follow in good footsteps. Their older brother, Julian, a Westlake High School freshman, raised $5,000 in 2007 to help put electricity and water into the St. Joseph Mahiga Primary School in Kenya. Currently, formal education for children in the rural area of Africa stops at the eighth grade. The younger Kuniks want to see learning extended all the way through high school.

“Right now, their school stops after middle school,” Nathan said. “They need a high school, so we’re helping with that. Hopefully, we’re helping people get a better life.”

The triplets plan to donate part of the money they are given during their B’Nai Mitzvah in February to the Nobelity Project headed by their family friends Turk and Christy Pipkin. They want the money to go toward the building of the Kenyan high school.

“Kids in Kenya don’t have as many opportunities as we do,” Sophie said. “This school can help change that. If your education stopped after middle school, you wouldn’t be prepared for life.”

“Having an education through high school will help them go to college,” Nathan said.

“So they can get better jobs when they are older,” Sophie added.

The triplets want the money they donate to go to the brick and mortar needed for high school classrooms. They hope it will also be enough to help pay to put electricity and water in the facility.

When Julian was in seventh grade, he donated most of the money he received during his Bar Mitzvah to put electricity in the Mahiga school and to help build a water well for the community.

Julian said he learned about the school when his mom took him to see “Nobelity,” Pipkin’s first film.

“It was such an inspiring movie,” he said. “I just really wanted to do something to help the school.”

Julian is very happy he contributed to the cause in a meaningful way, and that the Mahiga community now has a healthy water source.

“That was crucial,” he said. “Many of the kids were infected with cholera and dysentery. We also got electricity into the school and some computers, so we brought technology to the students.”

Julian hopes some day, perhaps after college, he will be able to visit the Mahiga community and see the long term effect from the Nobelity project and contributions. Right now, he’s happy just looking at the photos his friend Pipkin brings back from his trips.

“It feels good to have done something like this – to know that you contributed to a charity that helped change kids lives.”

His younger siblings are looking forward to their own contributions to the school. They are planning to set up a Facebook page to help people understand what they are trying to accomplish. All three of the Hill Country students think charitable work is important in the world.

“It’s good for other people, but it’s good for you as well,” Sophie said. “It makes you feel better to know that other people are having a better life because you care.”

“It’s a step in ridding the world of poverty,” Nathan said. “And it makes people feel better about other people – all other people – to know that we are out there helping each other.”

To find out more about the Mahiga school in Kenya, visit Nobelity.org and follow the links to “One Peace at a Time.”