Adams was attracted to the Peace Corps for most of the traditional reasons that attract volunteers: a desire to travel, a chance to make a difference and present a good face for the United States, and to build job skills. "Quite frankly, it's difficult for people my age to get work," she said. "I figured that if I knew [another language], it would trump being 65 years old when I came back."
Marion Adams leaves for her two-year stint in Moldova, but it's not her first experience with volunteer and social work
Watsonville resident, 63, to head to Moldova for Peace Corps
Keenan Weatherford - Sentinel Correspondent
Article Launched: 06/02/2008 01:33:26 AM PDT
Caption: Marion Adams enjoys a cup of coffee Tuesday in Watsonville as she speaks about her two year engagement with the Peace Corps in Moldova which begins in June.
Marion Adams has a family history of giving back, so it shouldn't be surprising that she decided to join the Peace Corps to teach English at a university in the primarily Romanian-speaking nation of Moldova.
"I guess you could say that I come from a long line of do-gooders," she said.
Her sister and brother-in-law are both teachers and her brother is a retired electrical engineer who spends his time wiring Christian radio stations in developing countries.
At 63, however, the Watsonville resident doesn't exactly fit the typical mold of the young, recently graduated Peace Corps volunteer. Although Adams is not a recent graduate, she is well-trained in the usage of some of the premier forms of procrastination among college students: she uses Facebook to meet and communicate with the group she'll be volunteering with, and reading the blogs of current volunteers was a factor in her decision to join.
Adams is one of a growing number of Peace Corps volunteers over age 50. Last year, the Peace Corps launched a recruitment campaign to attract more applicants from the baby-boom generation and those who are past the half-century mark.
And it seems to have worked. Applications from people over age 50 are up 63 percent in the last year, and now make up 6 percent of total volunteers, according to the Peace Corps. The goal of the campaign is to have 15 percent of Peace Corps volunteers fall into the 50-plus
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category in the next two years.
Adams was attracted to the Peace Corps for most of the traditional reasons that attract volunteers: a desire to travel, a chance to make a difference and present a good face for the United States, and to build job skills.
"Quite frankly, it's difficult for people my age to get work," she said. "I figured that if I knew [another language], it would trump being 65 years old when I came back."
Adams leaves for her two-year stint in Moldova on Saturday, but it's not her first experience with volunteer and social work.
She has taught English in Korea and Slovakia, had jobs in day care and mental-health centers in the states, volunteered at a soup kitchen, Dorothy's Place, in Salinas, and worked for 20 years in alcohol therapy counseling, all after getting her master's degree in social work from New York University.
It seems reasonable to expect that nerves would be a factor when leaving to spend two years in one of Eastern Europe's poorest countries. But Adams, who has visited 17 countries, is looking forward to the trip.
"People say 'Why do you do this?'.... I just grew up knowing that [volunteering] was something to do," Adams explained. "I keep thinking that... if I won the lottery, would I still go? Yeah, probably.... It's going to be a trip and a half, I can hardly wait."
