Rutgers University Unveils Commemorative Plaque

Patricia A. Wand

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers are finding creative and meaningful ways to mark the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s enduring legacy.

The first group of volunteers to enter Peace Corps training in 1961 commemorated Peace Corps’s 50th Anniversary by dedicating a plaque at Hegeman Hall on the Rutgers University campus, New Brunswick NJ, on November 5, 2010.

Temperatures were low outdoors for the unveiling of the plaque but enthusiasm for the event carried us through bone-chilling winds. Joanna Regulska, Rutgers Dean for International Programs, spoke of Rutgers’ commitment to international engagement and assured us that had she not been growing up in Poland, she, too, would have been a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Mary Day Kent, Advocacy Coordinator, CARE , revealed captivating data about the effective Peace Corps/CARE partnership. After two years, when Colombia 1 volunteers were leaving the country in 1963, CARE records indicate that 44 schools, 29 roads, 27 aquaducts, four health centers, 100 sports fields and over 1,000 latrines had been built, and 26 co-ops had been formed through the volunteers’ efforts with Colombians. Those of us who followed Colombia 1 volunteers know that the partnership with CARE continued, and the number of successful projects increased dramatically through the 20 years PCVs served in Colombia.

Carrie Hessler-Radelet, Deputy Director, Peace Corps, updated us about the re-entry of Peace Corps to Colombia in September 2010, with nine volunteers serving and 18 more arriving in January as trainers to English teachers. [See Phil Giesen’s article in this issue. –Ed.] She recounted some poignant stories recorded by Colombia 1 volunteers in PeaceCorpsWriters and elsewhere, and remarked on their relevancy to volunteer experiences in over 120 countries where Peace Corps has served.

Juan Esteban Orduz, President, Colombia Coffee Growers Federation (Cafeteros), recognized the support and assistance given to coffee farmers by Peace Corps and reminded us that Juan Valdez, the international symbol of Colombian coffee, was also born in 1961.

Darrel Young, Colombia 1, spoke eloquently of the pressures and exhilaration felt by the first trainees, knowing as they did that stakes and risks were both high and highly visible. Other Colombia 1 volunteers who spoke in the course of the two days included Michael Willson, Philip Lopes, Ron Schwarz, Buster Lewis, Ned Chalker, Martin Acevedo, Dennis Grubb, John Montoya, Buck Northrup, Bruce (Pacho) Lane, and Gordon Radley (RPCV Malawi), in memory of his deceased brother, Larry Radley.

At the closing banquet, I announced the initiation of a new Friends of Colombia project, the 50th Anniversary Scholarship Fund, to which Colombia 1 volunteers have made the founding gift of $2,000.

In the words of Kevin Quigley, President, National Peace Corps Association, who spoke on the panel addressing the Rutgers community, the rest of us “stand on the shoulders of the Peace Corps pioneers who comprise Colombia 1,” and, I add, on the shoulders of hundreds of other volunteers who answered the early call to action by John F. Kennedy and Sargent Shriver in 1961.

NPCA representative Pat Wand (RPCV Colombia VIII, 1963-65), is also a founding board member of Friends of Colombia.