RPCV Jan Droegkamp keeps eyes trained on Jamaica during hurricane



RPCV Jan Droegkamp keeps eyes trained on Jamaica during hurricane

Eyes in Springfield trained on Jamaica
Sep 11, 2004

State Journal-Register Springfield, IL
by Lisa Kernek Staff Writer

Springfield residents with relatives and friends in Jamaica were worried Friday as Hurricane Ivan descended on the Caribbean island.

[Excerpt]

Also following Hurricane Ivan's progress was Jan Droegkamp, a professor of liberal studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Droegkamp served in Jamaica in the 1970s as a Peace Corps volunteer. In May, she took four UIS students there to perform community service projects. The group spent three weeks in Treasure Beach on the island's southern coast.

Droegkamp said that for the past four or five years, she has spent vacations in Jamaica and made friends with many Jamaicans. She planned to try to contact them to see how they were faring.

Jamaica is so poor that rebuilding after a hurricane would be difficult, Droegkamp said.

"Their roads aren't built for good drainage," she said. "Most of the people wouldn't be living in houses that would be built to withstand major flooding."

Droegkamp plans to return to Jamaica in May with another group of UIS students. If necessary, they'll help repair the damage done by Hurricane Ivan.

When this story was posted in October 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:

Director Gaddi Vasquez: The PCOL Interview PCOL sits down for an extended interview with Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez. Read the entire interview from start to finish and we promise you will learn something about the Peace Corps you didn't know before. Plus the debate continues over Safety and Security.

Schwarzenegger praises PC at Convention Governor Schwarzenegger praised the Peace Corps at the Republican National Convention: "We're the America that sends out Peace Corps volunteers to teach village children." Schwarzenegger has previously acknowledged his debt to his father-in-law, Peace Corps Founding Director Sargent Shriver, for teaching him "the joy of public service" and Arnold is encouraging volunteerism by creating California Service Corps and tapping his wife, Maria Shriver, to lead it. Leave your comments and who can come up with the best Current Events Funny?

Peace Corps: One of the Best Faces of America Teresa Heinz Kerry celebrates the Peace Corps Volunteer as one of the best faces America has ever projected in a speech to the Democratic Convention. The National Review disagreed and said that Heinz's celebration of the PCV was "truly offensive." What's your opinion and can you come up with a Political Funny?

Read the stories and leave your comments.