March 5, 2005: Headlines: Older Volunteers: Alternatives: Newsday: My volunteer activities are going to center around teaching English as a second language here at home and on short-term international "volunteer vacations."
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March 5, 2005: Headlines: Older Volunteers: Alternatives: Newsday: My volunteer activities are going to center around teaching English as a second language here at home and on short-term international "volunteer vacations."
My volunteer activities are going to center around teaching English as a second language here at home and on short-term international "volunteer vacations."
My volunteer activities are going to center around teaching English as a second language here at home and on short-term international "volunteer vacations."
Long-term value of short-term volunteer work
Janis Henderson, Sandra Bailey
March 5, 2005
I loved your Peace Corps article [last week's cover story, "Corps values"]. I've thought about the Peace Corps as an option for me when my youngest child graduates college in five years (she's currently a high school junior). I'll be 58 then. I'm glad to hear I won't be too old - it gives me food for thought and dreaming!
In the meantime, my volunteer activities are going to center around teaching English as a second language here at home and on short-term international "volunteer vacations." I'm beginning a 24-hour training course through Literacy Suffolk to tutor immigrants who want to learn or improve their English. After the training program, I'll be matched with one or two adult students and will meet with them two to three hours a week.
On the international front, last summer my daughter and I spent two weeks in Italy teaching English to school-age students through an organization called Global Volunteers. In addition, we spent three weeks in Europe as tourists. We came home after five weeks, not only having had a terrific time, but knowing that we'd done something good through our volunteer work. In the summer of 2006, we'll be going to China.
Once my daughter leaves for college a year from August, I'm planning to take at least one, hopefully two, of these volunteer vacations a year by myself, either through Global Volunteers or one of several other such organizations. I'm looking forward to visiting several Eastern European countries this way, as well as countries in Africa and Asia.
Then, when my daughter is finally out on her own, I can consider something longer term, like the Peace Corps, if I find that I've enjoyed the shorter trips I've taken.
I think these shorter-term volunteer trips are a nice alternative for those of us who have a longing to travel off the beaten path and to help others at the same time, yet may not be able to leave home for such an extended period. I wonder how many people read last week's Peace Corps article and thought, "Sounds great, but no way could I go for so long." There are alternatives out there.
Sandra Bailey,
Smithtown
When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state. |
| March 1: National Day of Action Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went. |
| Coates Redmon, Peace Corps Chronicler Coates Redmon, a staffer in Sargent Shriver's Peace Corps, died February 22 in Washington, DC. Her book "Come as You Are" is considered to be one of the finest (and most entertaining) recountings of the birth of the Peace Corps and how it was literally thrown together in a matter of weeks. If you want to know what it felt like to be young and idealistic in the 1960's, get an out-of-print copy. We honor her memory. |
| Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week. |
| Peace Corps Calendar: Tempest in a Teapot? Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments. |
| WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service. |
| Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress. |
| RPCVs mobilize support for Countries of Service RPCV Groups mobilize to support their Countries of Service. Over 200 RPCVS have already applied to the Crisis Corps to provide Tsunami Recovery aid, RPCVs have written a letter urging President Bush and Congress to aid Democracy in Ukraine, and RPCVs are writing NBC about a recent episode of the "West Wing" and asking them to get their facts right about Turkey. |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
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Story Source: Newsday
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Older Volunteers; Alternatives
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