March 12, 2005: Headlines: COS - Guatemala: Tampa Tribune: Eric Black will deliver clothing to villagers in the mountainous town of Tacana' in Guatemala where he's completing a nine-month stint as a Peace Corps forester
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March 12, 2005: Headlines: COS - Guatemala: Tampa Tribune: Eric Black will deliver clothing to villagers in the mountainous town of Tacana' in Guatemala where he's completing a nine-month stint as a Peace Corps forester
Eric Black will deliver clothing to villagers in the mountainous town of Tacana' in Guatemala where he's completing a nine-month stint as a Peace Corps forester
Eric Black will deliver clothing to villagers in the mountainous town of Tacana' in Guatemala where he's completing a nine-month stint as a Peace Corps forester
Needy Guatemalans To Get Clothes, Shoes
By BECKY RICHARDS
rrichards@tampatrib.com
SOUTH TAMPA -- The children of Guatemala moved Elaine Black.
She witnessed countless youngsters without shoes and with only light sweaters and jackets during a December trip to the Central American nation with her husband, Paul, to visit their son, who is in the Peace Corps.
When she returned to her job teaching prekindergarten at the Jewish Community Center Preschool on Bayshore Boulevard, Black steered her sympathy into a fund drive that yielded 800 pounds of clothing and $354.86.
The money will go toward shipping the four large boxes of adult and children's clothing to Guatemala City in two weeks. William Stewart, whose two children attend the preschool, will organize the shipping and cover any balance. He's director of marketing and finance for Essilor Latin America in St. Petersburg, a lens manufacturer.
Once the clothing arrives in Guatemala City, Eric Black and a convoy will deliver it to villagers in the mountainous town of Tacana', where he's completing a nine-month stint as a Peace Corps forester. He's teaching people how to maximize their land by planting crops and saplings in forested areas.
His mother taught her 4- and 5-year-old students about Guatemala during a recent International Week.
As part of the week, the school's 3-year-olds raised $443 for tsunami relief by selling lemonade. They used the pitch that the "Indian Ocean got mad and flooded some homes. We want to help the Indian Ocean be happy," said Cheryl Matthews, preschool director.
Black said she sent a letter to parents in January asking for coats and shoes their children had outgrown.
"They were fabulous. We got loads of shoes, socks, baby clothes, right up through teenagers and adults."
The preschool was without power for about 30 days during hurricane season. Still, parents and staff donated three truckloads of supplies to victims in Arcadia, where Matthews has relatives.
"It just takes someone starting a cause and the families respond," she said.
Reporter Becky Richards can be reached at (813) 835-2106.
Copyright (c) 2005, The Tampa Tribune and may not be republished without permission. E-mail library@tampatrib.com
When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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| RPCVs in Congress ask colleagues to support PC RPCVs Sam Farr, Chris Shays, Thomas Petri, James Walsh, and Mike Honda have asked their colleagues in Congress to add their names to a letter they have written to the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, asking for full funding of $345 M for the Peace Corps in 2006. As a follow-on to Peace Corps week, please read the letter and call your Representative in Congress and ask him or her to add their name to the letter. |
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| March 1: National Day of Action Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
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Story Source: Tampa Tribune
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