The fund raising event by The Peace Corps Fund raised approximately $100,000 and now plans to offer a substantial number of grants this year to former Peace Corps Volunteers and RPCV groups to support Third Goal projects. Plans are also underway by the Peace Corps Fund’s leadership to grow an endowment to ensure that the Third Goal of the Peace Corps Act will be fulfilled. To learn more about the Peace Corps Fund, how to apply for a grant or how to support the Peace Corps Fund, visit the website at www.peacecorpsfund.org
Peace Corps Fund's 'Celebration of Service' was a major success
PEACE CORPS FUND ‘CELEBRATION OF SERVICE’ MAJOR SUCCESS
Caption: Caroline Kennedy speaking to over 600 RPCVs and friends of the Peace Corps Fund attending the First Annual Life of Service Awards held in New York City on September 29, 2005. She congratulated the Peace Corps Fund for fulfilling the Third Goal of the Peace Corps Act, and congratulated the 5 RPCV teachers who were honored by the Fund for their service as educators in the New York City public schools.
New York--Caroline Kennedy joined more than 500 Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs), friends, families and supporters to celebrate the Peace Corps Fund’s first annual fundraiser and to honor five RPCV teachers in the New York City public school system with the Dorothy Cann Hamilton Living a Life of Service Awards. The Peace Corps Fund, established in 2002 as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization, supports programs, projects and activities conducted by Returned Peace Corps Volunteers to implement the Third Goal of the Peace Corps Act - helping Americans understand the people and cultures of other countries - and thereby making our country better informed and more engaged in world affairs.
RPCV Ira Cornelius Weston, a former Volunteer in Kenya, and for the last ten years the principal of Paul Robeson High School for Business and Technology in Brooklyn receives his award from Caroline Kennedy while RPCV Maureen Orth, a former Volunteer in Colombia, looks on.
Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy who created the Peace Corps, presented the awards to the teachers in a brief ceremony that included her strong words of encouragement for the Peace Corps Fund and praise for five of New York City’s finest teachers, all Returned Peace Corps Volunteers.
Caroline Kennedy with the winners: Ingrid Buntschuh (Kenya), Ira Weston (Kenya), Allison Granberry (Western Samoa), Kirsten Larson (Senegal) Pedro Santana (Kenya)
The Fund’s event organizers stressed that the awardees, though exemplary, were not winners so much as representatives of RPCV teachers everywhere. Nevertheless, the impact of receiving the Fund’s acknowledgement was keenly felt by each of the teachers as one of the best moments of their lives.
"When I received the award, I suddenly knew that the hopes and dreams that I always have for my students, some of whom were watching from the audience, were real," said Allison Granberry, who served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Western Samoa and has taught for more than 15 years in the south Bronx and now teaches at Lincoln-Hostos Academy.
In addition to Granberry, awards were given to Ira Cornelius Wilson, who served in Kenya, who just started his tenth year as principal of Brooklyn’s Paul Robeson High School in Brooklyn; Kirsten Larson, a Kenya volunteer who is in her seventh year as a New York City educator and is currently teaching at Marble Hill School for International Studies in the Bronx; Pedro Santana, who also served in Kenya, has been a New York school’s principal for five years and recently established the Manhattan Charter School whose mission is to prepare its students to achieve high academic levels in music and in four core academic subject areas and Ingrid Buntschuh, another Kenya volunteer, is the Assistant Principal of Science at A. Philip Randolph Campus High School on the campus of City College on 135th Street in Manhattan.
Maureen Orth (Colombia) on the Advisory Board of the Peace Corps Fund; John Coyne (Ethiopia) Co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund; Caroline Kennedy; Barbara Anne Ferris (Morocco) Co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund; Former Senator Harris Wofford, member of the Advisory Board to the Peace Corps Fund
The fund raising event by The Peace Corps Fund raised approximately $100,000 and now plans to offer a substantial number of grants this year to former Peace Corps Volunteers and RPCV groups to support Third Goal projects. Plans are also underway by the Peace Corps Fund’s leadership to grow an endowment to ensure that the Third Goal of the Peace Corps Act will be fulfilled. To learn more about the Peace Corps Fund, how to apply for a grant or how to support the Peace Corps Fund, visit the website at www.peacecorpsfund.org.
