The Peace Corps

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Glenn Blumhorst (Guatemala 1988-91) West Side Runners keep making big strides Herald and News   Bill Staab, right, talks with a group of Ethiopian runners after a short workout at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx borough of New York, Tuesday. AP NEW YORK (AP) — A no-name entrant at this month’s New York City Marathon — literally, he didn’t even qualify to have his name printed on his bib — Girma Bekele Gebre crashed the elite field and finished third in the largest 26.2-mile race in the world. A week later, the Ethiopian runner sat in Bill Staab’s (Liberia 1963-65) Upper West Side apartment, smiling and nodding while Staab recounted details from his stunning podium finish. “It’s a life-changer,” Staab said. Staab, the 80-year-old president of the West Side Runners Club, has helped numerous careers during his 42-year term, making the American dream . . .

    KERA TV presents WAGING PEACE: The Peace Corps Experience a film by Allen Mondell (Sierra Leone 1963-65), a Media Projects, Inc. production “We wanted to make a difference and change the world. And the world changed us.” — Allen Mondell • In 1961, President John F. Kennedy asked a generation of Americans to volunteer and make a difference on a global scale. Since then, more than 200,000 volunteers have answered his call. WAGING PEACE: The Peace Corps Experience weaves  personal letters, journals, emails and blogs written by Peace Corps Volunteers with profiles of four returned volunteers showing the enduring impact of these experiences on their own lives and the lives of others. “I’ve recounted our stories that capture the seemingly insurmountable challenges of ordinary Americans who were willing to endure vast cultural isolation, poverty, suspicion and, at times, antagonism–all in the hopes of making a small difference.” — Allen Mondell   Celebrating  the power of volunteerism . . .

    The European athletic games took place in Minsk, Belarus, in June 2019. About 3,600 athletes competed in 15 sports, many of which were qualifying opportunities for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Join Steve Kaffen at the European Games, and experience the people, sights, and local color of historic and picturesque Minsk. Using over 200 original photographs and descriptions, the author showcases the host city and the Games’ exciting activities including four final events and the spectacular closing ceremony. Steve brings an unusual diversity of life and travel experiences to his writing. He has explored most countries and is a long-time member of the famed Explorer’s Club. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Russia ( 1994-96) and later as the Assistant Inspector General for Auditing at Peace Corps for its worldwide operations. Among interesting experiences, the author has monitored elections for the UN, written the soccer . . .

RPCV Alana deJoseph, producer of  “A Towering Task” reports:” Our special limited edition DVDs have arrived. Once these are sold out, DVDs won’t be available until after our theatrical run, because we want to qualify for the Oscars!” Purchase those DVDs here: https://www.peacecorpsdocumentary.com/buydvd. Find information about hosting a screening here: https://www.peacecorpsdocumentary.com/hostascreening

RPCVs are working with Refugees, individually, with NPCA organizations, and with local communities.  The National Peace Corps Association has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Rescue Committee to further support this work.  Here is the link to the MOU: https://bit.ly/2CYzyRl  

  Boyhood in Bayfield by Andrew Oerke (PC Staff: Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Jamaica 1966-71) Poets’ Choice Publishing 72 pages $19.95 (paperback) – purchase from publisher Reviewed by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991-93) • Poems by a Man of Many Talents Andrew Oerke has as diverse a biography as one could imagine. He was a Peace Corps country director in Tanzania and Jamaica. He was also a Golden Gloves boxing champion. He was the CEO of an environmental foundation. He was also the president of a microfinance organization. By one account, noted in his obituary published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Oerke was instrumental in the creation of the Peace Corps. The newspaper reports: “At a campaign stop in Milwaukee during John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential bid, Oerke is credited with suggesting to then-U.S. Senator William Proxmire that a global volunteer organization should be developed that would allow young people to share . . .

    Check out what’s happening with my horror novel HOBGOBLIN!! If you’re on Facebook, please join HOBGOBLIN THE FILM GROUP!! • Be sure to watch HOBGOBLIN:THE FILM GROUP TEASER •

  Early ’60s Analysis of Youth Service by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962–64) IN EARLY 1960, Maurice (Maury) L. Albertson, director of the Colorado State University Research Foundation, received a Point-4 (precursor to USAID) contract to prepare a Congressional Feasibility Study of the Point-4 Youth Corps called for in the Reuss-Neuberger Bill, an amendment to the Mutual Security Act. The Youth Corps was “to be made up of young Americans willing to serve their country in public and private technical assistance missions in far-off countries, and at a soldier’s pay.” Then in late 1961, Public Affairs Press in Washington, D.C. published, New Frontiers for American Youth: Perspective on the Peace Corps written by Maury Albertson, and co-authored with Andrew E. Rice and Pauline E. Birky. The book was based on their Point-4 study. According to the authors, “The roots of the Peace Corps idea . . . stretch wide and deep, . . . . .

One Morning in September by Edwin Jorge (Jamaica 1979–81) Edwin Jorge was the Regional Manager of the New York Peace Corps Office and was at work in Building # 6 of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The building was destroyed when the North Tower collapsed. At a commemoration service held at Headquarters in Peace Corps/Washington a year after 9/11 Edwin spoke about the attack and what happened to the Peace Corps Office. His comments follow.   ONE YEAR AGO TODAY, on the morning of September 11, 2001, I sat down at my office desk and turned on my computer. As the computer booted to life, I glanced up and looked out of the windows of my office on the sixth floor of the Customs House in the heart of the financial district of New York. From where I sat, I could see the corner of Tower One . . .

    Legendary journalist Bill Moyers says he fears for the nation for the first time in his life. “Society, a democracy, can die of too many lies — and we’re getting close to that terminal moment,” he warns. by Mary Papenfuss • Respected journalist Bill Moyers said Sunday that for the first time“in my long life” — including the Depression and World War II — he fears for the nation’s survival. unless we reverse the obsession with lies that are being fed around the country, Moyers told Brian Stelter on CNN. Hope lies in citizens paying careful attention to the televised impeachment hearings beginning this week on Wednesday. . . Read in HuffPost

    Blue Country by Mark Wentling (Honduras 1967–69, Togo 1970–73); PC Staff: Togo, Gabon, Niger 1973–77) Page Publishing 204 pages August 2019 $16.95 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Mark D. Walker (Guatemala 1971-73)   • I’ve been looking forward to the author’s next book after thoroughly enjoying Africa’s Embrace, which is part of his African Trilogy. I reviewed his book Dead Cow Road, which took place in Somalia, so I’m familiar with the author’s ability to spin an interesting yarn about far off places. The author’s work and travels span more than 46 years, which have taken him to 54 African countries. The author worked with USAID, the U.S. Foreign Service, CARE International and World Vision, making him an ideal person to spin this tale of international intrigue and political struggle in Central America. Although the author was a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, he was also a volunteer . . .

The Birth of the Peace Corps JFK’s first direct association with the Peace Corps idea came on February 21, 1960. He was on a college television show called “College News Conference” and someone asked about the “Point Four Youth Corps.” Kennedy said he didn’t know what the legislative proposal was. Afterwards, he told aide Richard Goodwin to research the idea. Goodwin, who was the Kennedy link with the “brain trust” at Harvard, wrote to Archibald Cox at the university’s law school about the idea. Then in April and May of 1960, when Kennedy was running against Humphrey for the nomination, the idea was discussed further. Humphrey introduced his bill for a “Peace Corps” in the Senate in June, but after Kennedy won the nomination in July, Humphrey transferred all his research files to Kennedy’s office. The Cow Palace speech made by Kennedy right before the election, which revealed his growing . . .

Peace Corps has hit the Big Screen!  Thanks to the efforts of talented, persistent and dedicated RPCVs, the Peace Corps story is now being told in film. RPCV Alana deJoseph, (Mali 92-94) and RPCV Allen Mondell(Sierra Leone 63-65) are the producers.  Here is the current schedule, first, for screenings of RPCV Alana deJoseph’s A Towering Task and then the  PBS presentation of RPCVAllen Mondell’s Waging Peace. It is also important to recognize Academy Award Dominated RPCV Alan Toth Documentary, Posh Corps and his website continues to show important videos. http://www.poshcorps.com/film   Here are the schedules for A Towering Task and a PBS presentation of Waging Peace __________________________________________________________ A Towering Task Link: https://www.peacecorpsdocumentary.com/screenings-event Denver Film Festival Sunday, November 10, 2019 11:15 AM 1:15 PM VIEW EVENT → 0 Likes Share NOV 18 7:00 PM Gannon University Screening Monday, November 18, 2019 7:00 PM 9:00 PM VIEW EVENT → 0 Likes Share NOV 19 . . .

THOSE OF US WHO follow the history of the Peace Corps agency know the term “peace corps” came to public attention during the 1960 presidential election. In JFK’s last major speeches before the November election at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California he called for the creation of a “Peace Corps” to send volunteers to work at the grass roots level in the developing world. However, the question remains: who said (and wrote) “peace corps” for the very first time? Was it Kennedy? Was it his famous speech writer Ted Sorensen? Or Sarge himself? But — as in most situations — the famous term came about because of some young kid, usually a writer, working quietly away in a back office that dreams up the language. In this case the kid was a graduate student between degrees who was working for the late senator Hubert Horatio Humphrey. Today, fifty-eight plus . . .

In the early days of the Peace Corps there was a Placement Test given to all applicants. Actually it was two tests. A 30-minute General Aptitude Test and a 30-minute Modern Language Aptitude Test. The areas of testing were in Verbal Aptitude, Agriculture, English, Health Sciences, Mechanical Skills, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, World History, Literature, United States History and Institutions, and Modern Language Aptitude. One-hour achievement tests in French and Spanish were also offered during the second hour. The instruction pamphlet that accompanied the tests said that the results would be used “to help find the most appropriate assignment for each applicant.” For those who missed the opportunity to take the tests, which were given — as best I can remember — from 1961 until around 1967, I am including a few of the questions. Lets see if you could still get into the Peace Corps back then. Verbal Aptitude . . .