San Dancers of Botswana at 50th year celebration of Peace Corps[/caption]Carol Forsloff----As the 50th year memorial of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy approaches, some of the programs identified with his tenure remain as the symbol of that era where social service in the US or abroad was lauded. One of those programs is the Peace Corps. But what is its status today?
The Peace Corps was established during Kennedy's administration, however the idea of American adults serving people in underdeveloped areas or countries was that of Hubert Humphrey, Vice President under President Lyndon Johnson and a well-respected educator from Minnesota who later became its Senator.
Humphrey had introduced the idea in Congress, and although the Senate favored and folks considered it a popular idea, the State Department was against it. However, during Kennedy's administration the idea was adopted and made a signature program of the New Frontier. Thousands of young people in the 1960's signed up to dedicate two years of their lives to serving abroad.
Today the Peace Corps remains a viable agency, however there are increased risks in some countries that include sexual assault and other forms of violence. The organization, however, continues to be vigilant about those risks in order to continue to entice service-minded folks to help individuals and whole villages with everything from planting food to basic education and medical care.
The Peace Corps also serves as a way of helping people understand each the culture of one another. For example, this year in Macedonia a young volunteer, Sara Scholin of Pine City, Minnesota, put together a three-day Halloween celebration along with two other teachers at the school where she has been teaching so that students in grades five through eight could participate in traditional Halloween activities.
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