Chad RPCV Margaret Schutzius is Freedom Hero Winner
Everyday Freedom Heroes embody the spirit of the Underground Railroad by establishing or advancing freedom for themselves or another person. Below are the winners. Read their stories of courage and perserverance to advance freedom.
When Margaret Schutzius joined the Peace Corps, she was looking to help. Possibly aid a few people. Do what she could to make a small difference in the world. Three years later, she'd touched the lives of thousands, and was celebrated nationally for her selfless efforts to help strangers and call them friends.
Few people do so much in an entire lifetime. Ms. Schutzius did it in just two years.
And so, when the plane that was returning her to the United States was shot down by Libyan terrorists in 1989, it wasn't just the small village she'd been working in that mourned. But the entire population of Chad.
Ms. Schutzius volunteered in 1987 to serve as one of the first Peace Corps members to re-enter the war-torn country of Chad after fierce fighting had caused volunteers to pull out eight years earlier.
Her mission: to teach reading and writing to the children, and introduce the concepts of freedom, human rights and hope to a generation that had known nothing but war.
Living with no running water or electricity and among deadly illness, Ms. Schutzius befriended students, shop owners, medical officials and government leaders. When her mother returned to Chad after Ms. Schutzius' death, the people of the Chad turned out with story after story of how one young woman had made a lasting difference to so many.
For her boundless courage and steadfast dedication to the spirit and potential of freedom, we celebrate the life and memory of Margaret Schutzius as our 2004 Kroger Everyday Freedom Hero.
