When Maureen Kuiper wakes up in mid-March, she'll be in a hut in Kiribati



When Maureen Kuiper wakes up in mid-March, she'll be in a hut in Kiribati

Goodbye Friendly House, hello Peace Corps

By Lou Whitmire
News Journal

Caption: Maureen Kuiper hugs Trey Hissong, 8, and Alaysia Gross, 5, while checking out the farewell cake at her party at Friendly House on Monday. Kuiper is leaving as director of the Friendly House Day Care to join the Peace Corps for two years. (Dave Polcyn/News Journal)

MANSFIELD -- When Maureen Kuiper wakes up in mid-March, she'll be in a hut in the South Pacific.

Kuiper, 57, director of the daycare program at Friendly House for 23 years, will spend her last day Friday with children at the 380 N. Mulberry St. facility.

Her new task is with the Peace Corps, teaching island children English as a second language.

Friendly House director Thelda Dillon, Kuiper's sister, threw a surprise goodbye luncheon Monday complete, with a sheet cake in full island decor.

Kuiper will be missed, Dillon said.

"I am sad as I am losing an extremely valuable asset to Friendly House, not to mention my sister, my friend and my neighbor," Dillon said. "Maureen fulfilled many different jobs. But two years will pass and I believe she will be back and we all will be happy," Dillon said.

Kuiper was director of the Happy Hollow Day Camp, doing every job -- including driving the camp bus.

Amid hugs and well wishes from preschool students, friends and parents, Kuiper said she will live in Kiribati in the Gilbert Islands for two years.

Kuiper, who has two grown daughters and a grandson, said she is excited, but a bit nervous about living without electricity or running water.

She will be required to wear long skirts and blouses on the island. She will live with a host family her first three months. "They provide the mosquito net. No shorts, no Levis ... I see a lot of tea, bananas and fish," she said.

Kuiper said the Peace Corps was started when she was in high school and it is something she always dreamed of doing.

She was offered four possible positions, two in Africa, one in Asia and the one in the South Pacific.

"They said, basically, 'you'll be on your own' and I said that's me," she said.

Dillon said her sister will miss TV. "She loves TV," Dillon said, making her sister laugh.

Sean Dillon, 34, said his aunt is fulfilling a dream.

"She's outgoing. She crewed for me on a sailboat for years. She always told me she never wanted to look back with regrets," he said.

Employees of the Friendly House presented Kuiper with a diving watch, a gift she said she will treasure.

Local residents Bruce and Faye English came to say goodbye to Kuiper, who provided a safe haven for their two sons, Jeff and John.

"Maureen taught both our children to read and to swim," Faye English said. "That was in 1981 and 1982."

lwhitmire@nncogannett.com

When this story was posted in February 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state.

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Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week.

Peace Corps Calendar:Tempest in a Teapot? Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments.

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February 19, 2005: This Week's Top Stories NPCA Board positions are open for nomination 17 Feb Mike Tidwell on trial for climate action protest 17 Feb Katie Dyer is co-owner of Cadeaux du Monde 16 Feb Cyclone misses Tonga and Samoa PCVs 16 Feb Phil Hardberger in debate for Mayor of San Antonio 16 Feb Edmund Hull is Princeton Diplomat-In-Residence 16 Feb Bruce Greenlee is longtime friend of Latino community 15 Feb Mike Honda new vice chairman at DNC 15 Feb Jospeh Opala documents slave crossing from Sierra Leone 14 Feb Dear Dr. Brothers: Aren't PCVs Hippies? 14 Feb Joseph Lanning founded the World Education Fund 14 Feb Stanley Levine draws Marine and Peace Corps similarities 14 Feb Speaking Out: JFK envisioned millions of RPCVs 13 Feb Chris Aquino visits mother's homeland of Vietnam 12 Feb Is PCOL blocking users from posting messages? 12 Feb JFK Library opens Sargent Shriver Collection 1 Feb RPCV responds to Bulgaria Calendar concerns 28 Jan

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WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service.

Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress.

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.

RPCVs contend for Academy Awards Bolivia RPCV Taylor Hackford's film "Ray" is up for awards in six categories including best picture, best actor and best director. "Autism Is a World" co-produced by Sierra Leone RPCV Douglas Biklen and nominated for best Documentary Short Subject, seeks to increase awareness of developmental disabilities. Colombian film "El Rey," previously in the running for the foreign-language award, includes the urban legend that PCVs teamed up with El Rey to bring cocaine to U.S. soil.

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."

Read the stories and leave your comments.