Archive - December 21, 2016

Vermont Ranks As Peace Corps’ Top Volunteer-Producing State in 2016 WASHINGTON. D.C., Dec. 20, 2016 – Today, Peace Corps announced that Vermont ranks No.1 among states with the highest number of Peace Corps volunteers per capita for the fourth consecutive year. Fifty-two (52) volunteers from the Green Mountain State are currently serving worldwide, with a ratio of 8.3 volunteers for every 100,000 residents, the highest per capita rate in the nation. Meanwhile, the Burlington-South Burlington area ranks No. 2 among metropolitan areas with the highest number of volunteers per capita, with 18 area residents currently serving overseas. It has ranked in the top five volunteer-producing metropolitan areas per capita since 2013. “During my time leading the Peace Corps, I have seen the tremendous impact that volunteers have when they share their unique hometown perspectives with the communities they serve,” said Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet. “Volunteers represent our nation’s rich diversity by . . .

What continues to surprise me is how few people–since that morning in the Mayflower Hotel–have read “A Towering Task” the policy paper written by Wiggins and Josephson. The document was the first draft of defining the Peace Corps; it was in some ways the Holy Grail of the agency. When I asked Warren Wiggins about this, he commented wryly, “It’s marvelous that nobody has read it because, you see, in most ways I didn’t know what the hell I was talking about. In some ways I was dead on, but I did recommend that we ship air-conditioned trailers to the Philippines to house the Volunteers. It’s a far cry from the theology of the Peace Corps that evolved, but then, those were the early days.” What is clear now from the safety of time and distance is that being anti-establishment, amateurish, anti-professional was the reason for the success of the Peace . . .