2007.10.25: October 25, 2007: Headlines: COS - Slovakia: COS - Colombia: Service: Awards: Miami Herald: Colombia and Slovakia RPCV Helen Dudley can't stop giving
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2007.10.25: October 25, 2007: Headlines: COS - Slovakia: COS - Colombia: Service: Awards: Miami Herald: Colombia and Slovakia RPCV Helen Dudley can't stop giving
Colombia and Slovakia RPCV Helen Dudley can't stop giving
Helen Dudley recently received the President's Volunteer Service Award at the organization's annual meeting Sunday at the Rusty Pelican on Virginia Key. The award, established by a council created by President Bush in 2003, recognizes Americans who inspire others through volunteerism. Dudley, 61, previously served in Barranquilla, Colombia, from 1968-70, helping develop a Care nutritional feeding program. ''I had such a fantastic experience the first time, I knew I had wanted to do it again at some point,'' said Dudley, who headed to Presov, Slovakia, an Eastern European nation of 5.4 million. She learned Slovak and from 1997-99 worked for a community foundation that issued small grants to small-business owners adjusting to a post-communist society.
Colombia and Slovakia RPCV Helen Dudley can't stop giving
Peace Corps volunteer can't stop giving
The Peace Corps' national director talked to a returned-volunteers group and presented an award to a Miami-Dade resident.
Posted on Thu, Oct. 25, 2007
BY PRISCILLA GREEAR
U/Miami News Service
Caption: Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter with Helene Dudley of Miami, president of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of South Florida.
Ten years ago after she sent her fifth child off to college, Helene Dudley was ready for a change. The divorced mother left her managerial position in solid waste management with Miami-Dade County and joined the Peace Corps -- again.
Dudley, 61, previously served in Barranquilla, Colombia, from 1968-70, helping develop a Care nutritional feeding program.
''I had such a fantastic experience the first time, I knew I had wanted to do it again at some point,'' said Dudley, who headed to Presov, Slovakia, an Eastern European nation of 5.4 million. She learned Slovak and from 1997-99 worked for a community foundation that issued small grants to small-business owners adjusting to a post-communist society.
For her successes abroad and in South Florida, Dudley recently received the President's Volunteer Service Award at the organization's annual meeting Sunday at the Rusty Pelican on Virginia Key. The award, established by a council created by President Bush in 2003, recognizes Americans who inspire others through volunteerism.
National Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter presented Dudley with the award, calling attention to the organization's new recruiting initiatives to attract volunteers 50 and older.
Currently, 5 percent of the corps' 7,749 volunteers are over 50. In the Miami area, there are 518 returned volunteers and 32 local residents in service. Statewide there are 217 serving, and on average 6 percent of Floridians who volunteer are over 50.
The Peace Corps, Tschetter said, is recruiting older Americans because they have been identified as being especially generous in volunteerism. And, he said, seniors have amassed between 35 and 40 years of experience and expertise that they can share.
''Age brings a tremendous amount of respect, and people will get engrained in their communities more rapidly because of their age,'' Tschetter said.
Dudley, a Miami resident, said she agrees with the group's new recruiting emphasis.
``It's a chance for baby boomers to really energize that last portion of your life.''
Dudley's volunteerism did not end after her second Peace Corps stint.
After returning home, she joined with another former Colombia volunteer and Colombians to create in 2000 the Colombia Project, which helps to provide micro-loans at low or no interest to families displaced by violence. And as president of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of South Florida, Dudley has led their efforts to financially support projects such as the Haitian Education Leadership Program based in Haiti, which provides college scholarships for Haitians.
Tschetter in September completed his first year as the new director of the independent government agency established in 1961 under President John F. Kennedy. Tschetter, 66, volunteered in Maharashtra, India, as a health worker from 1966-68.
Tschetter acknowledges that while the Peace Corps is looking for older volunteers, the core of the group comes from young Americans like Coral Gables resident Jason McGibbon, who was one of about 100 former volunteers on hand at the meeting.
McGibbon, 25, returned in 2006 from San Marcos de Ocotepeque, Honduras, where he used his engineering skills to design water and sanitation systems to distribute purified water in countryside villages.
The experience, he said, has given him a heightened sense of social responsibility.
``It opens your eyes and makes you want to do more.''
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Headlines: October, 2007; Peace Corps Slovakia; Directory of Slovakia RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Slovakia RPCVs; Peace Corps Colombia; Directory of Colombia RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Colombia RPCVs; Service; Awards; Florida
When this story was posted in November 2007, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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Story Source: Miami Herald
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Slovakia; COS - Colombia; Service; Awards
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