From Abu Dabhi to London, Sante Fe to Essex, hundreds of former Peace Corps volunteers gathered in the United States and around the world to show solidarity for doubling the Peace Corps and raise funds. These gatherings send a powerful message to the Obama-Biden Transition Team for Peace Corps which will begin its work this week that the movement to build a bigger, better, bolder Peace Corps is becoming an explosive global phenomenon. MorePeaceCorps Holiday House Parties will take place through the end of the year with hopes of raising $35,000 by year-end. RPCVs living abroad are encouraged to continue to host events and generate international publicity for the MorePeaceCorps campaign. Thank you to our hosts for taking action for the future funding levels of the Peace Corps!
(photo above was taken in London by RPCV hosts Julia Maxwell and Alicia Mehl)
Renowned environmentalist, Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Foundation, joined the MorePeaceCorps Advisory Council this week. He becomes the 115th prominent service leader to endorse the goal of building a bigger, better, bolder Peace Corps - one that is doubled in budget and volunteer number by 2011, the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Peace Corps. Pope, who served as a Peace Corps volunteer in India from 1967 to 1969 serves on the boards of the National Clean Air Commission, California Common Cause, and Public Interest Economics. A champion of environmental preservation and clean energy, he has served as the Policy Director for Zero Population Growth. The Sierra Club is the oldest environmental organization in the United States, founded in 1892 by the legendary John Muir (1838-1914). Muir, who has been called, "The father of our National Parks" and "Wilderness Prophet, " renowned for his expeditions to Alaskan glaciers and the Sierra Nevada mountains, helped inspire President Teddy Roosevelt's innovative environmental initiatives. MorePeaceCorps expresses appreciation to Mr. Pope for joining the movement to build a bigger, better, bolder, and greener Peace Corps.
]]>William D. Novelli, CEO of American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), a membership organization with over 35 million members over the age of 50, joined the Advisory Council to MorePeaceCorps.org, becoming the 112th prominent service leader to endorse the effort to scale and revitalize the Peace Corps by 2011. Mr. Novelli served in the Peace Corps headquarters staff from 1971 to 1972 as the Director of Advertising and Creative Services. Prior to becoming the CEO of AARP, Mr. Novelli was the President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Mr. Novelli also held the position Vice President of CARE, the world's largest private relief and development organization, with 11,00 employees working in forty developing countries.
]]>The morning after the historic election that made Barack Obama the 44th president of the United States, Jonathan Pearson (Micronesia 87-89) of the National Peace Corps Association launched the MorePeaceCorps Petition to President-elect Obama urging the president-elect to lead in the movement to double the budget and number of volunteers in the Peace Corps. In just four weeks, over 10,000 individuals including 10 former directors of the Peace Corps signed the petition.
You can still sign it and read comments left by other by clicking: http://www.petitiononline.com/morepc/
Thousands of comments from former volunteers illustrate that the Peace Corps experience has changed millions of lives around the world. Doubling the Peace Corps would be an inexpensive way to send a world-wide message that the human face of America is back. This picture was sent to MorePeaceCorps this morning by a former volunteer when the Obam family visited the Peace Corps office in Kenya in 2006.
Senator Herb Kohl of Wisconsin sent a letter indicating ardent support of the MorePeaceCorps Campaign's vision of a bigger, better, bolder Peace Corps recently. Senator Kohl is the 11th lawmaker to issue such supportive statements for the campaign since its inception in January 2008. We thank the Senator for his kind and unquivocal support.
]]>Former Ambassador to Guatemala (1989-93) and President and CEO of Alpha Development Corporation, Thomas F. Stroock joined the advisory council to MorePeaceCorps this week, becoming the 110th prominent individual to pledge support of the effort to grow and revitalize the Peace Corps. Ambassador Stroock is a former Chairman of the Wyoming School Boards Association and multiple term State Senator for Natrona County (1967-69; 1971-75; 1979-89). Ambassador Stroock, a living legend in the state of Wyoming, is also the former chairman of the Wyoming Natural Gas Pipeline Authority and a former director of the Wyoming Medical Center. He joins former President Jimmy Carter, Senator Chris Dodd, Representative Sam Farr and many others in lending their name to MorePeaceCorps.
]]>Bill Sansone (Nepal 98-00), Director of Global Reach International, is hosting two holiday receptions to raise funds for the MorePeaceCorps Campaign on Saturday, December 13 and Friday, December 19. The MorePeaceCorps receptions will take place at the Baker Theater (http://www.Bakertheater.com, 341 West. Blackwell Street, Dover, NJ) in Dover NJ at 8:30 PM. RPCVs can also attend the ballet (which begins at 7 PM) free of cost and stay for the MorePeaceCorps drink reception afterwards! Funds raised from drink sales will be used to support the MorePeaceCorps campaign!
For more information, email Bill Sansone at bill@globalreachinternational.org or call 201-874-4973 (cell).
Please join us for the ballet and MorePeaceCorps benefit reception to support the campaign and meet other RPCVs!
Thank you.
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A winner of the National Book Award for First Fiction, the Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, celebrated writer, journalist, and food connoisseur Bob Shacochis joined the MorePeaceCorps Advisory Council this week. A former Peace Corps volunteer in the Eastern Caribbean, Shacochis is the author of two short story collections, Easy in the Islands and The Next New World; a novel, Swimming in the Volcano; a collection of essays about food and love entitled Domesticity, and The Immaculate Invasion, about the 1994 military intervention in Haiti. His op-ed commentaries on the U.S. military, Haiti, and Florida politics have appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Shocochis is a contributing editor to Harper's Magazine and Outside Magazine. He teaches at both Florida State University and Bennington College.
Pictured above is Aaron Marquez, Co-Executive Director of http://www.ServeNext.org . Aaron served in Americorps in '03 and '04 and is co-leading an effort to expand all national service opportunities including Americorps and Peace Corps.
We urge you to sign Aaron's petition which is supported by a growing coalition (including MorePeaceCorps) urging President-elect Obama to make a bold call to service in his inaugural address:
http://servenext.org/a_new_call_to_service/
Dick Celeste, who served as director of the Peace Corps from 1979 to 1981, joined the MorePeaceCorps Advisory council this week. Celeste, a member of the Council on foreign Relations, served as Governor of Ohio from 1983 to 1991. He is among 108 prominent individuals supporting the MorePeaceCorps Campaign 's goal of building a more robust and dynamic Peace Corps with 16,000 volunteers. Celeste was appointed by President Bill Clinton to be the Ambassador to india, a post he held from 1997 to 2001. Today, he is the President of Colorado College and Co-Chair of the Century Foundation Homeland Security Project.
]]>A coalition of 25 returned Peace Corps volunteer (RPCV) groups and associations came out in block support of the MorePeaceCorps Campaign this Week. If you would like to join, please get in touch with us. We need your energy, dynamism, and volunteer spirit! The RPCV groups are led by committed volunteers and are logical partners for a grassroots effort like MorePeaceCorps.
Friends of Nepal (www.friendsofnepal.com)
Iran Peace Corp Friends
CT RPCVs (www.ctrpcv.org)
Friends of India (www.foindia.org)
RPCVs of New Jersey (www.rpcv-nj.org)
Kentucky-Indiana RPCV Association
Green Mountain VT RPCV Association
Oklahoma RPCV Association
RPCVs of Long Island
Palo Alto RPCV Association
New York University RPCVs
Friends of Kyrgyzstan (www.friendsofkyrgyzstan.org)
RPCVs of Southern Florida (www.rpcvsf.org)
Atlanta Area Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (www.aarpcv.org)
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender RPCVs (www.lgbrpcv.org)
RPCVs of Hawaii
Friends of Colombia (www.friendsofcolombia.org)
Friends of Thailand (www.friendsofthailand.org)
Friends of Ecuador
Northern California Peace Corps Association (www.norcalpca.org)
RPCVs of Colorado
Friends of Afghanistan (http://www.afghanconnections.org)
RPCVs of Southern Kansas
Friends of the DR of Congo
The Shriver Center Peace Worker Program at UMBC cordially invites you to the 6th annual Peace Corps keynote presentation by Bill Josephson, author of the Towering Task and one of the founders of the Peace Corps. The event, which focuses on the size, shape, and scope of a 21st century Peace Corps, will take place on the 7th floor at the UMBC Library on Thursday, November 13 (7 PM, desert reception to follow). For more details, contact Dr. Joby Taylor at: jtaylo14@umbc.edu.
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Success!! Thousands Participate in Nationwide Campus Day of Action
Over two dozen college campuses participated in the MorePeaceCorps Nationwide Day of Action. Hundreds of letters containing 2,237 total signatures were delivered to the candidates and appropriations subcommittee members. Thank you so much for taking part! Now we need you to sign our online petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/morepc/
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SIGN THE PETITION NOW! http://www.petitiononline.com/morepc/
"To restore America's standing, I will call on our greatest resource- our people. We will double the size of the Peace Corps by its 50th anniversary in 2011. And, we'll reach out to other nations to engage their young people in similar programs, so that we work side by side to take on the common challenges that confront all humanity. The Peace corps has been a key part of meeting those challenges such as overcoming poverty, combating diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria, and reducing the global education deficit. This will not be a call issued in one speech or on program. This will be an important and enduring commitment of my presidency."
President-Elect Barack Obama, Quantum Leap, Worldview Magazine Fall Issue
This is the best opportunity to expand and revitalize the Peace Corps since its founding.
1. Sign the petition here: http://www.petitiononline.com/morepc/
2. Go to the More Peace Corps Campaign website here: http://www.morepeacecorps.org, sign up to receive emails and join the effort! Write RPCVs to join as well.
3. Donate $25 or $100 online - whatever you can.
4. Tell all you know! Forward this email to ensure a Bigger, Better and Bolder Peace Corps! We must reach 5,000 sign-ups by the end of the year and we can only do it with your hel
Please urge your Peace Corps buddies and family members to sign up at http://www.MorePeaceCorps.org (or sign them up yourselves!). With a president-elect Obama on record pledging to double and reinvigorate the Peace Corps, this is a historic opportunity to help restore the nation's image. President-Elect Obama cannot do it alone. Constituents (you) must write lawmakers to urge the 111th Congress to authorize and appropriate the first infusion of funding.
This is why we need numbers.
The larger our coalition, the stronger we will become. President-Elect Obama is determined to double the Peace Corps but it cannot happen without you.
Now begins our biggest challenge: scaling this campaign to the national stage. Thank you for all you are doing for MorePeaceCorps. Whether you are hosting a Holiday House Party on December 6, donating a few dollars, or writing letters to your members of Congress, we appreciate it.
THE TIME IS NOW!!
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