Archive - 2024

In the news – Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Bob Arias (Colombia 1964-66)       Soraya Bilbao says the South Pacific is where she “fell in love with teaching.” She was a Peace Corps volunteer teaching in a classroom in Atata, an outer island in the Kingdom of Tonga, a nation of 170 islands located west of the Cook Islands and east of Fiji. She taught in a classroom in an area where she was unfamiliar with the native language. So at the same time she taught English, she struggled to learn the language her students spoke, Tongan. It was a challenge that Bilbao sought and embraced. At the time, she was working in the nonprofit sector. Bilbao, who now teaches at Danbury High School, said because of her three years in Tonga, she learned she wanted to become an educator. “It just never crossed my mind to be . . .

Lost Hollow by Donna S. Frelick (Gambia 1976-78) 335 pages July 2024 $2.99 (Kindle 2298 KB) Book 1 of 1 Alienville Series  • • •  Dr. Moira McCann worries when her mercurial twin Claire fails to show up for a rare sisterly visit. Claire’s last text was from a small town in the North Carolina mountains—Allenville. And now Claire won’t respond to any texts or calls; her phone is dead. Which means Moira—the responsible sister—has to go looking for her. Allenville Police Chief Seth Call juggles the usual town disputes and the everyday trouble outsiders get into in his remote county. But early summer brings a special kind of chaos: it’s mating season in these mountains for a certain vicious species, and anyone is prey if they wander too far off the known paths. When Moira seeks his help finding her sister, Seth can’t hint at any of the real dangers she . . .

In the news –   PressRelease — Wayne J. Arendt, PhD, has been selected for inclusion in Marquis Who’s Who. As in all Marquis Who’s Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process. For nearly half a century, Dr. Arendt has been a prominent figure in ornithology. His field research commenced in California, following a three-year tenure in the US Army (1966-1969), which included two years in Alaska as a 4.2 mortarman and Battalion mail clerk, and one year as a military policeman at Ft. Carson’s maximum-security stockade. In 1975, he investigated the life-history of the California Thrasher and its adaption to mesquite cover in the Anza Borrego Desert. Subsequently, he joined the Peace Corps (1976-78) serving in the Dominican Republic under the . . .

  The Showgirl and the Writer: A Friendship Forged in the Aftermath of the Japanese American Incarceration by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65)   The Showgirl and the Writer, A Friendship Forged in the Aftermath of the Japanese American Incarceration, by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65), is a hybrid memoir/biography. It encompasses Mueller’s own story, beginning at her birth to Caucasian parents in the Tule Lake Japanese American High-Security Camp in Northern California, and tells the tale of her long friendship with Mary Mon Toy, a Nisei performer who was incarcerated in the Minidoka Japanese American Camp in Idaho during WWII. The two met by chance in 1994. By then, Mueller was a published author, and Mary Mon Toy, by necessity of old age, had retired from an unusually successful career on stage and television, for an Asian American actor of her time. After Ms. Mon Toy’s death, Mueller penned the previously . . .

  WASHINGTON, DC— AmeriCorps and Peace Corps awarded the first Harris Wofford Joint Service Award to more than 200 individuals in Houston, Texas at the annual Points of Light Conference. Honoring the legacy of the late Senator Harris Wofford, who helped establish both the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps, the award recognizes individuals who have already chosen to serve their country at home and abroad through both programs, as well as the thousands more who make that same commitment in the future. WATCH: Harris Wofford Award Ceremony “As we commemorate the inaugural Harris Wofford Joint Service Awards, I am proud and grateful for the more than 200 changemakers who have served their country at home and abroad through AmeriCorps and Peace Corps” said Michael D. Smith, AmeriCorps CEO. “These awards serve as a call to action in remembrance of Harris Wofford’s remarkable life and legacy, to find ways big and small to give . . .