Posts tagged history
Life is calling. How far will you go?
From the Peace Corps Digital Library: Photos taken by Peace Corps Volunteer Ron Dizon for a Peace Corps/USAID Project called Operation Help during the 1970s famine relief in Afghanistan.
“Peace Corps is an organization for which I have a strong personal affinity. The dedication and professionalism of Peace Corps Volunteers in our education system made a great impact on me during my formative years. Since 1962, Peace Corps Volunteers have been great ambassadors to my country and I know they will continue to play a critical role as we write the next chapter in the history of my country.”
During his visit to Peace Corps Headquarters today, President Ernest Bai Koroma of the Republic of Sierra Leone was reunited with Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Sharon Kasper Alvarado. Alvarado served in Sierra Leone from 1964 to 1966 as an education Volunteer and got to know President Koroma’s family and schoolmates. The two had not seen each other for nearly 50 years.
It’s Peace Corps Week
Peace Corps Week commemorates the date President John F. Kennedy signed the executive order to establish the Peace Corps, March 1, 1961.
Learn more about the Peace Corps and the Volunteers who are making a different in host countries around the world here.
Pictured: President Kennedy hands the pen used to sign the Peace Corps Act to his brother-in-law, R. Sargent Shriver, who he had designated as the Corps founding Director.
On this day in 1961, Peace Corps was formally authorized by Congress with passage of the Peace Corps Act.
Photo credit: Abbie Rowe, White House Photographs John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston
Letter from India
Lillian Carter, mother of President Jimmy Carter, wrote this letter to Mrs. Walter Spann while she was a Peace Corps volunteer in India. Mrs. Carter was 70 years old at the time.8/15/68.
In honor of President’s Day and our founder, here’s a vintage public service announcement featuring President John F. Kennedy.
The concept of volunteers serving abroad on grass-roots foreign aid projects originated in Congress in the 1950s. In 1961 President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps by executive order. President Kennedy then sent this letter to Senate President (Vice President of the U.S.) Lyndon B. Johnson describing the successes of the Peace Corps program he had established. Kennedy included a draft bill authorizing the Peace Corps with his letter. Kennedy’s draft bill was identical to the bill Senator Hubert H. Humphrey introduced on June 1, 1961. President Kennedy signed S. 2000 into law on September 22, 1961. The Peace Corps celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2011.
Letter from President Kennedy to Lyndon Johnson, 5/29/1961, Records of the U.S. Senate
S. 2000, Peace Corps bill, 6/1/1961, Records of the U.S. Senate
Today marks the 50th Anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s historic Rose Garden send-off to the first group of Volunteers to leave for service in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and Ghana in Africa. We are happy to have this archival footage of his remarks.
