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Sunday, October 08, 2006 Act Globally: Local Peace Corps volunteers change one small corner of the world — and themselves
By NICOLE SERVICE An entire village brought tears of joy to DeLand resident Danielle Lubrano after her hut nearly burned to the ground. Her African friends rebuilt it. Norman Hickey of South Daytona discovered he wasn’t too old to start a new adventure. Former DeLand teacher Martha Bush found a whole new class to teach in a whole new world. They are some of the locals who have answered President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 call daring Americans to become global citizens and give two years of their lives to help wipe out poverty, disease and war in developing countries. In the worldwide struggle against communism, America needed more friends, and sending idealistic people abroad to help people in need was one way to win them over. Much has changed in the Peace Corps since those first 51 volunteers — all teachers — headed to Ghana 45 years ago. Outdoing the commies is no longer the imperative, volunteers tote cell phones and the mandate has expanded to urban planning, business advice and HIV/AIDS education. Then and now, Peace Corps volunteers don’t run around with the flag or think much about their government’s foreign policy goals. They just get to work. But in this age of terrorism and anti-American radicalism, the United States still needs friends in a big way. The Peace Corps has sent more than 182,000 volunteers to 138 countries as ambassadors of American culture, in turn giving volunteers an open-eyed view of the world beyond the 50 states
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