John F. Kennedy Library and Museum
March 5, 2011
50 Years of Peace Corps
Open Press/Open to the Public
The Pavilion
10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
10:00-3:00 Recruitment event with tables with RPCVS from around the world, Meet your Fellows and MI schools, World Wise Schools and our partners AmeriCorps and City Year
10:45 a.m. Customs From Around the World: Coffee*
11:45 a.m. Customs From Around the World: Tea*
12:45 p.m. Customs From Around the World: Cocoa*
*Demonstrations by Returned Peace Corps Volunteers on the importance of coffee, tea and cocoa traditions as observed in their countries of service.
Smith Hall
10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
10:30 a.m. Opening remarks
10:45 a.m. Documentary Premiere: “The Toughest Job We Ever Loved:50 Years of Peace Corps”
11:10 a.m. Storyteller Len Cabral
11:45 a.m. Panel Discussion featuring Peace Corps host country nationals whose lives were positively impacted by Volunteers:
Moderator Allyson Snell (Guatemala, 2006-2008)
Mustapha Fofana-Sierra Leone
Basile Komla Koumi-Togo
Indalecio “Indy” Vallejos-Belize
1:05 p.m. Tony Vacca’s World Rhythms
1:55 p.m. Special acknowledgments by Aaron S. Williams,Peace Corps Director (Dominican Republic, 1967-1970)
A Legacy of Service at Home and Abroad
Open Press/Invitation Only
Smith Hall
3:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.
3:00 p.m. Doors open, background music by Tony Vacca
3:30 p.m. Moderator Juliet Sorensen (Morocco, 1995-1997), daughter of Ted Sorensen, opens the event
Welcoming remarks by Thomas Putnam, Director of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum
Remarks by Peace Corps Director Williams
Passing of the Torch Ceremony:
- Music of Ghana tribute by percussionist Tony Vacca
- The 5 Generations of Peace Corps Presentation: Ghana 1 members (first Peace Corps group from 1961) will place Kente cloth over the shoulders of the newly departing Peace Corps trainees (Senegal, Mexico and Panama) in a traditional African departure ceremony
Remarks by Caroline Kennedy
Video presentation “A Legacy of Service; 50 Years of The Peace Corps”
Presentation of the John F. Kennedy Service Awards by Director Williams and Caroline Kennedy
Closing remarks by Erin Mone, Regional Manager of the New England Regional Peace Corps Office
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It is really good that people from host countries will be featured on panels.
The program to celebrate 50 years of Peace Corps to be held at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum on March 5, 2011 refers to Ghana 1 as the “first Peace Corps group from 1961.” This is incorrect. Colombia I and Tanganyika I are the first two groups of Peace Corps Volunteers. Both began training on June 26, 1961 and the program for Colombia started two hours prior to the one for Tanganyika. Ghana began training on June 29, 1961.
As John Coyne notes in his review of Robert Klein’s book on the first Ghana group “Klein and his Ghana I comrades make no claim to being anything other than the first PCVs on foreign soil.”
Other documentation about the first volunteers is included below.
Front page of the New York Times, published June 27, 1961.
Title of the Article: Peace Corpsmen Introduced to Tasks and Taskmaster
Reporter: Kenneth Love
Place and Dateline: New Brunswick, N.J. June 26.
Title under photo: R. Sargent Shriver, Peace Corps director addressing trainees at the Rutgers campus.
Description of photo: Shiver is speaking in the foreground and the rest of the photo shows Colombia I volunteers seated in front of him.
The first sentence reads: “The first two contingents of Peace Corps volunteers assigned to overseas projects began intensive two month training courses today at Rutgers University here and at Texas Western College in El Paso.
Note: The training in El Paso began two hours after the one in New Brunswick. The attached file is a copy of the photo and the contents of the first page of the article.
Television reporters and Time Magazine also covered the event and a story was published in TIME in the July 10, 1961 issue.
I hope this information is useful to you and others involved in the events celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps.
Sincerely,
Dr. Ronald A. Schwarz