Archive - 2017

What most of us remember of the weekend were Sargent Shriver’s comments under the big tent on the Mall and Bill Moyers’ speech in Arlington National Cemetery Ampitheatre. A ‘heads’ up’ to Sally Collier (Ethiopia 1962-64) for reminding me that Moyers’ talk should be published and shared with all the RPCVs and Staff who were not in Washington that bright September Sunday morning in 1986, or who joined the Peace Corps in the years since our 25th Anniversary Celebration. Remarks by Bill Moyers At the Peace Corps’ 25th Anniversary Memorial Service September 21,1986 Those men and women whose memory we honor today—volunteers and staff—would not wish us to be sentimental, to make heroic their living or to bestow martyrdom on their dying. I never met a volunteer who did not wince at the tales of idealism and sacrifice spun by Peace Corps/Washington in the cause of plump budgets and rave . . .

On Sunday morning, September 21, 1986, the Peace Corps Family gathered beside Daniel Chester French’s statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial. By country of service, all the RPCVs, Staff, and family and friends marched in procession across the Potomac’s Memorial Bridge carrying host country flags loaned by ambassadors. “I was in the Colombia delegation, and our group was close to the front of the line,” wrote Margaret Riley (Colombia 1973-75). “At the point when my group had finished our crossing, I looked back and all I could see was this mass of Returned Peace Corps volunteers and friends spanning the bridge, with the flags of all the countries waving as the group advanced. To me it was the most moving moment of the weekend.” The procession paused in the stark beauty of Arlington National Cemetery at President John F. Kennedy’s grave, by the eternal flame. Alan and Judy . . .

The 25th anniversary conference was one of the most remarkable events in the history of the Peace Corps. If you were fortunate enough to be in Washington, D.C., in September 1986, you were one of approximately 5,000 RPCVs who had served in 94 countries who took part in the event, much of it within the largest tent ever raised on The Mall, at the foot of the Capitol Dome adjacent to the Air and Space Museum. The tent was the brainchild of Bill Carey (Bolivia 1965-68), who left a Congressional job to become executive director of the conference. The tent was born of necessity. Other facilities of sufficient size had already been reserved. David Schickele (Nigeria 1961-63) would later write, “That tent was like the Peace Corps I was part of in 1961-63. Its muggy windless flaps said something about heat and hard work and improvisation, its massive nonchalance the . . .

Thomas Weck (Ethiopia 1965-67) has just been awarded a prize as Finalist in the Golden Script Screenplay Writing Contest for his screenplay, The Medal.  The screenplay is the fusion of a love story and a coming of age set in the First World War.   He has entered a number of other screenplay writing contests where he will hear the results later this summer.  He entered into these competitions with his screenplay, The Medal, as well as his second screenplay, Horace & Baby Doe, based on a true story of the most remarkable and improbable love affair set in the waning days of the Wild West.  

  Returned Peace Corps Volunteers take the stage to share true stories of service abroad The 6th Annual RPCV Story Slam will be held on Saturday, June 24. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 7:30 p.m. at Hostelling International New York City. It is located at 891 Amsterdam Ave. in Manhattan.  Suggested contribution of $5 for entry and drinks also available for a donation. Proceeds will support a current Peace Corps project abroad. When RPCVs tell stories, they humanize and illuminate places and people with that grassroots, Peace Corps perspective. Chuckle, cringe and even cry as RPCVs relive some of their most meaningful, bewildering and trying moments. “RPCVs are a goldmine of heart-rending, poignant and comical moments that expose us to our own limits and help us push past them,” said Sarah Porter who served in Macedonia from 2005 to 2007. “We tell it like it is, . . .

In Washington, D.C. today, June 2, at the Dacor House there is a special luncheon being held in celebration and remembrance of Mary Ann Orlando, the legendary personal assistant of Sargent Shriver who died on April 19, 2017, in Chevy Chase, Maryland. When Sargent Shriver moved from Chicago, Illinois to Washington, D.C. and became the Director of the Peace Corps he brought only one person with him, and that was Mary Ann Orlando. Mary Ann was born and raised in Chicago and went to work in 1946 at the Chicago Merchandise Mart. In 1948 Shriver took charge of the Mart, owned by his father-in-law, and Mary Ann became his secretary. At the start of the Peace Corps in 1961, she had already worked for Sarge for 13 years. Her title was Confidential Assistant to the Director. Mary Ann would go with Shriver to OEO, and later with him to his private . . .