February 6, 2005: Headlines: COS - Morocco: Orlando Sentinel: In one month, Tina Wills will begin a new journey in Morocco
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February 6, 2005: Headlines: COS - Morocco: Orlando Sentinel: In one month, Tina Wills will begin a new journey in Morocco
In one month, Tina Wills will begin a new journey in Morocco
In one month, Tina Wills will begin a new journey in Morocco
From Polk to the Peace Corps
By Amy L. Edwards | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted February 6, 2005
Tina Wills is leaving all she knows: her Lakeland apartment, her job as a coordinator in Polk County's recreation department, her family in Delaware and even American soil.
In one month, Wills will begin a new journey in Morocco.
This is no vacation. It's a voluntary, two-year assignment in a country she's never seen where the people speak a language she has yet to learn.
Wills, 33, is fulfilling her dream to join the Peace Corps.
"I'm getting pretty excited about it," she said.
Volunteering isn't new for Wills. Throughout college in Pennsylvania, she was active with a public-service organization. When she moved to Polk County, Wills joined Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay.
"Volunteering has been a very important part of my life," she said. "I've always been involved with volunteer work."
As a recreation-department coordinator, Wills has done everything from coordinating summer camps to initiating the county's Movie in the Park program.
Don Wilson, director of Polk's leisure services department, said Wills is an exemplary, energetic employee.
"She's great," Wilson said. "We would rehire her in a heartbeat."
It's been more than a year since Wills began her application process for the Peace Corps.
In March, she will begin several months of training in Morocco, which includes learning Berber, an Arab dialect spoken in that country.
After the training, she'll begin her two-year assignment as an environmental educator for youth.
In that role, Wills said, she will teach children lessons such as the importance of replanting trees if many in their area have been cut down. After the lesson, Wills said, she will help the children plant a new tree.
Wills said her experience as a volunteer and her job with Polk County, which she has held for almost five years, have prepared her for the Peace Corps.
"I enjoy working with people and look forward to this new challenge," she said.
Carrie Varnadoe, a mentor manager with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay, said Wills was generous with her time and always put her "little sister" first.
"She's very generous and giving to others," Varnadoe said.
"She is a wonderful volunteer and I wish we had more like her."
Amy L. Edwards can be reached at 863-422-3395 or aledwards@orlandosentinel.com.
When this story was posted in February 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| RPCVs mobilize support for Countries of Service RPCV Groups mobilize to support their Countries of Service. Over 200 RPCVS have already applied to the Crisis Corps to provide Tsunami Recovery aid, RPCVs have written a letter urging President Bush and Congress to aid Democracy in Ukraine, and RPCVs are writing NBC about a recent episode of the "West Wing" and asking them to get their facts right about Turkey. |
| Ask Not As our country prepares for the inauguration of a President, we remember one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century and how his words inspired us. "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." |
| Latest: RPCVs and Peace Corps provide aid Peace Corps made an appeal last week to all Thailand RPCV's to consider serving again through the Crisis Corps and more than 30 RPCVs have responded so far. RPCVs: Read what an RPCV-led NGO is doing about the crisis an how one RPCV is headed for Sri Lanka to help a nation he grew to love. Question: Is Crisis Corps going to send RPCVs to India, Indonesia and nine other countries that need help? |
| The World's Broken Promise to our Children Former Director Carol Bellamy, now head of Unicef, says that the appalling conditions endured today by half the world's children speak to a broken promise. Too many governments are doing worse than neglecting children -- they are making deliberate, informed choices that hurt children. Read her op-ed and Unicef's report on the State of the World's Children 2005. |
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Story Source: Orlando Sentinel
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