Sharon Mosher Tangney's nonprofit organization, Hands Across the Water, is affiliated with the national Friends of Liberia association made up of former Peace Corps volunteers



Sharon Mosher Tangney's nonprofit organization, Hands Across the Water, is affiliated with the national Friends of Liberia association made up of former Peace Corps volunteers

Pleasanton students help kids in Liberia

By Lea Blevins, STAFF WRITER

PLEASANTON -- Thanks to students and residents in Pleasanton, a village in Liberia has a generator to supply power to its school and clinic.

The school in Liberia's Johnsonville also received a laptop computer, educational equipment and money for teacher training from Pleasanton.

Pleasanton-based Hands Across the Water volunteer organization, which helped make these efforts possible, is dedicated to creating hope for children in Liberia, which has been in a 15-year civil war.

Sharon Mosher Tangney, a Pleasanton resident and counselor at Mohr and Walnut Grove elementary schools, started Hands Across the Water in 2001 to help rebuild Liberia's educational resources.

"I truly feel that children in Liberia suffered a lot, and I think they need the sense of peace in their lives and the sense of connection outside of the environment that they've been in," said Tangney, who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia from 1969 to 1971.

Tangney's nonprofit organization is affiliated with the national Friends of Liberia association made up of former Peace Corps volunteers.

With English as Liberia's official language, students from Mohr and Walnut Grove have been e-mail pen pals with students at the Johnsonville school.

Pleasanton students benefit by becoming aware of what children in Liberia experience, Tangney said.

Foothill High School's Kidz-R-Us club, started by senior Priya Shankar and other students, is assisting the efforts.

"Kids -- they're probably the most important people in the world," said Shankar, 16. "We can influence them so greatly if we teach them the right things."

Shankar will perform an Indian classical dance called "Bharatanatyan" at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Amador Theater, 1155 Santa Rita Road. The $5 tickets will help raise money for the Liberian students, along with students in India and Venezuela.

Hands Across the Water also will have a quilt on display from 7 to 8:30 p.m. today at the Pleasanton Library. The quilt was created by Mohr and Walnut Grove students, who incorporated artwork by Liberian students.

For more information or to donate books or money to Hands Across the Water, contact Sharon Tangney at (925) 595-6053 or kttjsharon@comcast.net .

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

Kerry reaches out to Returned Volunteers The Kerry campaign wants the RPCV vote. Read our interview with Dave Magnani, Massachusetts State Senator and Founder of "RPCVs for Kerry," and his answers to our questions about Kerry's plan to triple the size of the Peace Corps, should the next PC Director be an RPCV, and Safety and Security issues. Then read the "RPCVs for Kerry" statement of support and statements by Dr. Robert Pastor, Ambassador Parker Borg, and Paul Oostburg Sanz made at the "RPCVs for Kerry" Press Conference. RPCV Carl Pope says the key to winning this election is not swaying undecided voters, but persuading those already willing to vote for your candidate to actually go to the polls. Take our poll and tell us what you are doing to support your candidate. Finally read our wrap-up of the eight RPCVs in Senate and House races around the country and where the candidates are in their races.

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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.

By JANE ALLISON (pool-71-248-220-83.cmdnnj.east.verizon.net - 71.248.220.83) on Friday, March 10, 2006 - 10:56 pm: Edit Post

HI, MY NAME IS JANE A SAMUKAI. I AM IN SEARCH OF A CO-WORKER OF MINE, MR JIM SMITH WHO WORKED AS A PCV WITH THE CONSOLATA CATHOLIC CLINIC IN TAPITA NIMBA COUNTY- LIBERIA FROM 1987-88. JIM IF YOU ARE AROUND AND COME ACROSS THIS MESSAGE PLEASE DROP ME A MAIL AT JASAMUKAI@AOL.COM. IF ANY FORMER PCV WHO HAVE WORKED IN NIMBA COME ACROSS THIS MESSAGE AND KNOWS THE WHEREABOUT OF JIM SMITH PLEASE EMAIL ME BACK.

WORKING WITH JIM AND THE OTHERS PCVS WAS A PLEASURE. THEY UNDERSTOOD OUR SITUATION AND WERE WILLING TO WORK WIT US. IT'S MY HOPE AND PRAYERS THAT THE PCV PROGRAM WILL FIND ITS' WAY BACK TO OUR SOIL. THANKS FOR ALL THE WONDERFUL WORK.JANE.