Peace Corps Director Congratulates Students during the 10th annual Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Geography Awards ceremony
Peace Corps Director Congratulates Students
Gaddi Vasquez welcomes over 1,000 at ceremony
April 5, 2004
Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez exhorted over 900 Orange County junior high and middle school students to "continue to explore the world" during the 10th annual Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Geography Awards ceremony.
Over 1,200 students, parents, teachers, and Library Docents crowded into the Yorba Linda Friends Church on Friday, April 2 for the two-hour ceremony. Some 900 students received certificates of excellence as a result of their scores on an exam testing their knowledge of countries, capitals, oceans, and mountains of the world. Another 278 received awards for getting perfect scores on the test.
Each spring, Library Docents administer the test to students at north Orange County public and private schools -- 11 schools in all this year. The Library and Docent Guild began the geography award program after President Nixon said he hoped there was something his library could do to help students learn more about geography.
Vasquez, an Orange County native, former chairman of the Board of Supervisors, and friend of the late President, is the first Hispanic Peace Corps director. Congratulating the students, teachers and parents, he said, "Continue to explore the world, because it is a great, diverse, and interesting place."
Vasquez also encouraged the students to consider service in the Peace Corps and discussed the organization's interest in expanding recruitment. "Great things are going on in the world, and the one of them is the Peace Corps," he said. Under Vasquez the Peace Corps has expanded to 71 countries, the largest number in 28 years.
After his remarks, Nixon Library staff took him on a tour of the new Katherine B. Loker Center and White House East Room construction site. He was also guest of honor at a private luncheon hosted by Library supporters Kris and Linda Elftmann.
The 2003-04 Docent Geography Committee Chairman is Dianne Sickles. Team leaders for the testing at school sites were Sylvia Derby, Joan Johnson, Suzanne Clem, Carol Hurst, Gisela Smith, Jolene Jennings, Joan Johnson, Leah Kazaran, Marie Tourne, Barbara Berg, Geri Hunter, Hazel Betts, and Kitty Sparrow.
