Glenn A. Blumhorst (Guatemala) writes about his new job
November 9, 2022
Dear Friends,
Sargent Shriver urged us to “Serve, serve, serve! For in the end, it will be the servants that save us all.” It is fitting that today – Shriver’s birthday – I continue my service to the Peace Corps community in my new role as the lead fundraiser for the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation (PCCF). I am grateful for the warm welcome extended by Tony Barclay and the PCCF Board of Directors as we embark on an $8 million capital campaign to underwrite the design and construction of a commemorative work on the National Mall that honors the creation of the Peace Corps in 1961 and those aspects of the American character exemplified by Peace Corps service. Peace Corps Park will forever be a place in which to gather and reflect; to be inspired by the Commemorative’s meanings and messages; and to share in programmed activities embodying the Third Goal of the Peace Corps.
When the Peace Corps Foundation was originally established in 2002 by the NPCA Board of Directors, it was envisioned as a fundraising vehicle to support the Peace Corps community. Since that time, it has operated independently from NPCA, focusing exclusively on the Commemorative project, and in recent years it has coordinated its work with other participants in the Campaign for Peace Corps Ideals. I am especially honored to be working with the former members of Congress, former Peace Corps directors and other distinguished leaders who serve on the PCCF Board of Directors, all of whom are volunteers. Working full-time for the PCCF, I will be able to augment their efforts with generous support from many friends who have stood by me during the past very difficult months.
It’s exciting to know that my talent, relationships, and commitment to the Peace Corps community will be put to good use in bringing this flagship initiative to fruition. I played an active role at NPCA in advocacy efforts to pass the Peace Corps Commemorative legislation in 2014 and for its reauthorization in 2020. We are building a foundation for the future that will serve the Peace Corps community’s philanthropic commitments in support of the Commemorative and other initiatives led by Peace Corps community members. Serving with the Peace Corps Foundation will surely be the capstone of my Peace Corps career, which began as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala in 1988.
With gratitude for your support and the privilege to serve you,
Glenn
Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation
3601 Connecticut Avenue, NW #504
Washington, DC 20008
Attn: Bonnie Gottlieb
Glenn, Moke Chee and I are pleased you are working with PCCF and look forward to seeing the Peace Corps Park come to fruition.
Jim Wolter, Malaya I
Glenn, all the best, and congratulations on making such a fast and fluid transition. The Foundation will benefit from your energy, contagious enthusiasm, and dedication to the agency’s mission.
Glenn,
Good to see you back in harness! In it, the Peace Corps Park now has a vibrant chance of achieving its worthy goals.
Jeremiah Norris
Colombia 1963-65.
A GREAT FINAL MUSIC
This is bitter
life is brief
Friendships
passing
time’s
the thief
Life is bitter
this is brief
Passing
friendships
Surpassed
by grief
Time is liquid
each sun sets
Sunset renews
our floating leaf
Actions matter
thoughts matter
All flow into
a great final music
© Copyright Edward Mycue
heard the muffled advent of bright, new angels. Margo surprised or I might say for me shocked the whole family. Margo experienced much in her life including being a Grail Movement teacher in Lawton, OK, then lots of educational adventuring. Including the Interlochen national music camp summers in northern Michigan, Colorado summer theater and Show Boating on the Mississippi; she taught at Santa Clara University in the 1960’s in theater, speech, and the like and then began with the beginning of ACT and then went to the SF Mime Troupe and helped begin the New Shakespeare Company –SF performing across the USA and the same with the Bread and Puppet Theater.
When I came to San Francisco June 1. 1970 I took over the bookings job through the end of that year while Margo and Lee Chu went with our Danish friends Jouko and Marianne across country east where they went home from New York and Margo and Lee continued to Virginia Beach and the Edgar Cayce institute while she was pregnant with Zen born July 8, 1971; went up into the mountains to teach in a beginning multi racial elementary school in Tyro, Virginia (where Lili was born); and after that adventures onward and then into Hawaii so the kids would have the experience on shared Asian experience where she taught; then back to San Francisco where she administered a small old college; then back to Dallas (where when she was age 8 and we were 9 Mycue first moved from Niagara Falls, NY in 1948) taught disabled students and then in a college in Denton, TX. Along with more teaching along the Rio Grande; then back again to teaching in Dallas and Denton. Just before she died she had begun the transition to Los Angeles living first with Zen who teaches both there and alternating with M.I.T. in Cambridge, MA. She and Zen went on a three week vacation including Las Vegas. The day she died seemingly ok for a 1940-born woman, she and Zen had lunch and then went for a nap and when Zen looked in on she had died. Now I begin my life without Margo in it just as this Spring our sister Jane Mycue died in Santa Cruz CA. There are other wonderful awesome stories:. Both of my brothers David, and Peter, such grand men have died in the last 23 and 10 years; and surviving with me my remaining two sisters, Agnes (Cookie) McGaha in Claremont CA and Gerarda Koehne in Lincoln CA , who are equally superfine and loved as siblings can have when blessed. Our brother David and Elena de los Santos Mycue had 3 children (former “children” Alfredo, Victoria, Marcelo); neither Peter, nor I, had issue; Margo has Lili and Zen with their children; Cookie and Mike McGaha have Joe and John and their superior wives Katie and Sharon; Arda and Helmut have Johann + Ulrike who have Niklas pursuing graduate school and Oliver in college. Zen has two boys Max and Sam in graduate and college levels and Vivian just entering college; & Erik and Bella with 3 year old+ Helen. Alfredo and Sheri have Leah-Elena graduate study in Berlin, Victoria Ruth graduate and in journalism in Austin TX and Dito (Alfredo III — the third on the old De los Santos side) studied international nursing in Seattle WA.
Well there is much I don’t know or remember. Not all I recall is of complete description, maybe but it raises Richard’s and my 51+ years together even more meaning filled along with the history of his late two brothers Philip, and David, and Charmaine, in Roseberg OR, his sister’s 3 children (Natalie, Katie, Cristal — in San City UT, Brooklyn NY, Nantucket MA) and her grandchildren and Philip’s two sons Thomas and his two sons, and Tim up in Sonoma County. I have been maundering and meandering some, how freewheeling from bursts of light and fog comes to me — and somehow i pounce on these keys and I claim no historical certainty.
(C) Copyright Edward Mycue Thanksgiving notes
Such a beautiful life of giving and always teaching
Well done