September 29, 2005: Headlines: COS - Ethiopia: Fund Raising: PCOL Exclusive: John Coyne's Remarks at the Peace Corps Fund

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John Coyne's Remarks at the Peace Corps Fund

John Coyne's Remarks at the Peace Corps Fund

Good evening and welcome to the Peace Corps Fund’s first Annual Live a Life of Service Awards. My name is John Coyne and my life in the Peace Corps began at two o’clock in the morning on October 14, 1960 at the University of Michigan. A guy named John Fitzgerald Kennedy was running for president and in his speech at the U of M he challenged all of us—over 10,000 students gathered on the campus in the post mid-night darkness-- to volunteer to work in the developing world. I went from living in Michigan to living in Ethiopia with the first group of Volunteers that the Peace Corps sent to that nation.

John Coyne's Remarks at the Peace Corps Fund

John Coyne

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

Good evening and welcome to the Peace Corps Fund’s first Annual Live a Life of Service Awards. My name is John Coyne and my life in the Peace Corps began at two o’clock in the morning on October 14, 1960 at the University of Michigan. A guy named John Fitzgerald Kennedy was running for president and in his speech at the U of M he challenged all of us—over 10,000 students gathered on the campus in the post mid-night darkness-- to volunteer to work in the developing world. I went from living in Michigan to living in Ethiopia with the first group of Volunteers that the Peace Corps sent to that nation.

And in the 44 years since then nearly 200,000 Americans have volunteered in over 135 countries, speaking more than 300 languages. Over 45% of all Peace Corps Volunteers teach in schools overseas. Others work in health, agriculture, small businesses, and community development—and they are teaching too, from life saving AIDS education to the rudiments of rural credit union.

At its core, the Peace Corps is about service—service to our own country, and to the people of other countries. It is a simple but very powerful concept, one that has stood the test of time, and one that—in our view—has helped strengthen cross-cultural understanding between Americans and the billions of people in the rest of the world.

But the Peace Corps has another goal--one that stays with Returned Volunteers not just for a few years but for the rest of our lives. That goal, as stated in the Peace Corps Act of 1961, is that returned volunteers should "bring the world back home." That goal was important to JFK in the 1960s, and it's even more important for the United States now. Which is why Barbara Anne Ferris and I decided to establish the Peace Corps Fund, to provide grants and advice to Returned Peace Corps Volunteers—RPCVs—who are creating programs and projects to educate Americans here at home about the developing world. In the words of former Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan, this is a “domestic dividend” of the Peace Corps, one that will help our nation to better understand—and be in harmony with—the rest of the world.

Another domestic dividend of the Peace Corps are the 5 New York City Public School teachers we honor this evening. All of them began their teaching careers as educators in the Peace Corps.

Maureen Orth will tell you more about the individuals selected for tonight’s life of service awards. But what we know is that most former Volunteers who become teachers in America bring with them into their classrooms their overseas Peace Corps experiences. And these teachers are inspiring. Among today’s Peace Corps Volunteers, an overwhelming number say they were influenced to join the Peace Corps by RPCV teachers who ignited in them the spark of service and adventure.

It is now my pleasure to introduce to you my good friend Barbara Anne Ferris, founder and president of the International Women’s Democracy Center, co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund, who herself has lived in and traveled to over 100 countries, and is now a candidate for Congress from the great state of Ohio




When this story was posted in February 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:


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Story Source: PCOL Exclusive

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Ethiopia; Fund Raising

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