2010.10.09: October 9, 2010: Joe Jaycox served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Venezuela from 1962 to 1964
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2010.10.09: October 9, 2010: Joe Jaycox served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Venezuela from 1962 to 1964
Joe Jaycox served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Venezuela from 1962 to 1964
It was a wonderfully happy time, which made it all the more difficult to leave. "I almost cried, because my time was up, and I was going on to Europe and other places," he said. "These kids, these young men, weren't going anywhere. They were waving at me as I left. I was a Marine and a big tough guy, but I almost cried and said, 'I've got to do something to help these kids.'" Decades later, after a career as a furniture salesman, he got his chance. He struck up a friendship with Alfonso "Chico" Carrasquel, the White Sox shortstop and Venezuelan native, and together they planned a charitable organization to aid children in the South American nation.
Joe Jaycox served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Venezuela from 1962 to 1964
Pioneers in the Peace Corps
50 years after Kennedy proposed the Peace Corps, some of the earliest volunteers look back with pride
[Excerpt]
Joe Jaycox, 73 Venezuela, 1962-64
Growing up in a poor South Side neighborhood, Joe Jaycox treasured the days when the nuns of St. Ambrose School would treat him and other youngsters to a day at the Shedd Aquarium or the Field Museum.
He didn't forget the importance of fun when he was assigned to a poor neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela. He spent 10 hours a day on a basketball court, teaching the game to children who streamed there from across the city. He talked bus owners into taking the kids to the beach; many of them, he said, had never before left the barrio.
It was a wonderfully happy time, which made it all the more difficult to leave.
"I almost cried, because my time was up, and I was going on to Europe and other places," he said. "These kids, these young men, weren't going anywhere. They were waving at me as I left. I was a Marine and a big tough guy, but I almost cried and said, 'I've got to do something to help these kids.'"
Decades later, after a career as a furniture salesman, he got his chance. He struck up a friendship with Alfonso "Chico" Carrasquel, the White Sox shortstop and Venezuelan native, and together they planned a charitable organization to aid children in the South American nation.
Carrasquel died in 2005 before the group hit its stride, but since then, Jaycox said, the Chico Carrasquel Foundation has raised enough money to stage four trips a year, taking busloads of Caracas children to museums, swimming pools and even a McDonald's. Humble as those destinations may be, many of the kids have never had the opportunity to go.
"I've always had good memories, good thoughts of the (Venezuelan) people," he said. "That's lasted for 50 years. … This happens to a lot of Peace Corps volunteers. They just fall in love with the people. So did I."
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: October, 2010; Peace Corps Venezuela; Directory of Venezuela RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Venezuela RPCVs; 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps
When this story was posted in January 2011, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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Story Source: Chicago Tribune
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Venezuela; 50th
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