It was on the steps of the University of Michigan, during an impromptu campaign speech in October 1960, when then-presidential candidate John F. Kennedy first pitched the concept of a national volunteer service program. It was a bold, new experiment. Rather than simply taking a militaristic approach to foreign policy, the U.S. would send grassroots diplomats to labor alongside the world’s most impoverished people. Not to be based in embassies but out in the countryside. Just five months later, on March 1, 1961, the U.S. Peace Corps was born.
This year marks 60 years of the U.S. Peace Corps.
The state of Hawaii has a special relationship with the Peace Corps’ origin. From 1962 to 1971, Hawaii island served as the training ground for new Peace Corps recruits heading to the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, Nepal and Korea. Training took place in Hilo and other parts of the Big Island. Given its jungle canopy and semitropical climate, Hawaii was perfectly suited to prepare volunteers for postings around the Asia-Pacific region.
What started as a tiny seed grew into a mighty baobab.
Approximately 240,000 U.S. citizens have served our nation as Peace Corps volunteers in 142 countries since its founding — 1,482 of those volunteers from Hawaii. They collaborate with host-country counterparts on a wide range of projects designed to advance the United Nations’ sustainable development goals, working in the fields of health, education, food security, environmental stewardship, and more. Peace Corps volunteers have provided well over 3 billion hours of service, building lifelong friendships with countless citizens around the world, and returning stateside with new skills, knowledge and a lifelong commitment to service.
As we celebrate National Volunteer Week, April 18-24, we honor volunteers everywhere who lend their time and talents to address the most pressing problems facing our communities, states and nation. We are grateful that Americans have selflessly supported, and continue to support, federal volunteer service programs such as the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps. A January 2021 poll conducted by Change Research found that 77% of those polled support the expansion of service opportunities.
And in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Peace Corps is, for the second time in its 60-year history, now deploying volunteers in the U.S. to aid federally supported Community Vaccination Centers nationwide.
Unfortunately, federal funding for Peace Corps has been flat over the last six years. So we are thankful for recent bipartisan legislation, the Peace Corps Reauthorization Act of 2021 (H.R. 1456), introduced by Congressmen John Garamendi (D, Calif.) and Garret Graves (R, La.) and co-sponsored by Hawaii’s Congressman Ed Case. The bill proposes increasing funding in fiscal year 2022 to $450 million, to enable 10,000 volunteers per year.
Maybe you’ll be part of that 10,000-strong volunteer goal? You may think only 20-somethings join the Peace Corps, but in fact, there is no upper age limit for people interested in service. I accepted a 27-month Peace Corps assignment at the age of 63, serving in Ukraine from 2010-2012. Compellingly, 35% of my group were over the age of 50.
Interested in joining the Peace Corps? Look for open positions at peacecorps.gov. If you’re not sure if you can commit to 27 months of volunteer service, then look into Peace Corps Response, a program sending experienced professionals to undertake short-term, high-impact service assignments in communities around the world.
Anyone in Hawaii interested in joining the Peace Corps can connect with a recruiter at the University of Hawaii-Manoa at peacecorps@hawaii.edu. It really is, as the slogan goes, “the toughest job you will ever love.”
Caroline L. Mackenzie is president of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Hawaii (www.rpcvhi.org). This was submitted in observance of the U.S. Peace Corps’ 60th anniversary and of National Volunteer Week, April 18-24.
