August Newsletter: A beacon of hope for Peace Corps values
Dear Supporters,
Most memorials and commemorative works – in Washington, D.C. and around the country – are edifices to the past: Honoring the sacrifices of former leaders and citizens, ensuring that they are not forgotten. What we are doing with Peace Corps Park is different. We believe the values of peace and partnership are eternal, and the spirit of service among younger generations will ensure that they are not relegated to a past era.
The Peace Corps is in fact alive and well. In its resilience, it has emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic and global evacuation better than ever, with previous and new host countries eagerly inviting the Peace Corps to send volunteers to partner with their communities. We applaud the more than 2,700 PCVs who are currently serving in 60 countries around the world, and the Peace Corps leadership that is raising the profile of the agency through innovative and creative tactics such as Each One Reach One, online marketing, and even television commercials issuing a bold challenge to serve.
President Kennedy made the same bold challenge in his 1961 inaugural address, inspiring and igniting young people in the U.S. to "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." The sentiment that every person can make a difference is also expressed in the motto of the United States, "e pluribus unum", or “out of many we are one." It reminds us that anyone, of whatever background, can become an American and that we belong to a common humanity that stretches across the world. These values are as old as this country itself.
The Peace Corps manifests these American beliefs that individual lives matter; that every person can make an impact in their community; and that by living and working with mutual respect and trust alongside others beyond our shores, we are laying the groundwork for a better and more peaceful world.
Peace Corps Park will be a beacon of hope, a physical manifestation of our continued commitment to the eternal American values of partnership and multiculturalism. We thank you for being a part of it.
Yours in service,
Glenn A. Blumhorst
Chief Advancement Officer
Peace Corps Foundation
President and CEO, National Peace Corps Association (2013-22)
RPCV Guatemala (1988-91)
Design Spotlight: One World, Carved in Stone
As an enduring symbol of global partnership and unity, every element of Peace Corps Park’s design reflects the deliberate choices that support our shared mission. It took months–years, even–to find the right partner to execute this vision in Larry Kirkland. This month we take a deeper look at the approach to the world map etched in granite at the center of Peace Corps Park, and the many thoughtful considerations that went into its design.
Ours is not the first attraction in Washington, D.C. to feature a world map depicted in granite – visitors to the U.S. Navy Memorial see a world map depicted in its central plaza. There, a focus on the world’s oceans motivates a presentation using two types of stone, separated with inlaid metal borders.
But Kirkland and his team designing Peace Corps Park are driven to represent one world, as accurately as possible, differentiating landforms and oceans with texture instead of borders and different types of granite.
When dealing with textured stone though, you must ensure that it’s safe to walk on, and accessible to visitors using wheelchairs or other mobility aids. To get technical, that all comes down to the “coefficient of friction” - essentially, how slippery the surface is. This means that the highly-polished granite that would give the best color contrast would not meet our requirements for accessibility for all visitors.
The solution from our design Dream Team is to sandblast a texture through a stencil, carving ⅛-inch grooves into a 1-inch thick leathered, honed granite base. The grooves intersect within the landmasses instead of conforming to political borders, reinforcing the idea of the shared world we all inhabit.
“Talking to Peace Corps Volunteers, it’s the one-to-one connections they make during their service that are the most meaningful and impactful. So by making those grooves cross occasionally, that increases the coefficient of friction while supporting the symbolic value,” Kirkland said in describing the approach.
Similar thought has been given to the treatment of the oceans in Peace Corps Park’s central plaza design. Look out for more in our next newsletter.
Impactful Additions to our Advisory Board
The Peace Corps Foundation’s Advisory Board serves as a champion for Peace Corps Park and a valuable source of strategic insight. Members provide their professional expertise, diverse knowledge of constituent perspectives, connections to local, national, and international resources and many other forms of assistance to help fulfill our mission. This month, we are honored to welcome Terry Lierman and Chris Matthews to the team. See the full list of Advisory Board members on our website.
Terry Lierman
Terry Lierman is the former chief of staff to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Democratic Whip and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and the former staff director of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee regarding the federal government budget. He has also served as a White House liaison and chair of the Maryland Democratic Party. Terry has more than 35 years of consulting, communications, political experience and venture business in the health sector.
Terry has provided a variety of businesses, universities, organizations and government agencies with media relations, advising, communications management, business sustainability and program administration.
His career has been heavily influenced by his experience at the National Institutes of Health, serving on several health entities and boards as well as multiple corporate boards, including New York Life's Mainstays Mutual Funds, APCP Worldwide's International Advisory Council, the Advocacy Institute, Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, and the Children’s National Medical Center, where he founded the Children’s Research Institute. He is also a founder of the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN).
Chris Matthews
Chris Matthews served with the first Peace Corps contingent in Swaziland, now Eswatini, in 1968. Since returning home, Chris has split his career between politics and journalism. He was a presidential speechwriter for Jimmy Carter. Then, for the next half dozen years, he was top aide to Speaker of the House Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, Jr. Chris is best known for anchoring Hardball on MSNBC for twenty years.
He had entered journalism full-time in 1987 as Washington Bureau Chief with the San Francisco Examiner. For 15 years he wrote a twice-a-week, nationally syndicated, column for the Examiner and later for the San Francisco Chronicle. A graduate of Holy Cross in 1967, Chris worked toward a Ph.D in economics as a graduate assistant at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
As a Peace Corps Volunteer he served as a Trade Development Advisor in Swaziland. He was a visiting fellow at the John F. Kennedy Institute of Politics at Harvard University. He has received the Gold Medal of the Pennsylvania Society. He has 34 honorary degrees from institutions of higher learning.
Chris has written Hardball; Kennedy & Nixon; Jack Kennedy – Elusive Hero; Bobby Kennedy – A Raging Spirit, Tip & the Gipper about working relations between Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill, and This Country, a memoir. He continues to write for the Washington Monthly, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He appears weekly on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
Why I Give: Honoring a Life of Service
Stephen W. Schilling (Venezuela 1971-73), was long inspired by JFK’s call to public service, feeling that we all need to become the living legacy of Kennedy’s bold vision of political action and community service. Upon completing his Peace Corps stint and returning home, he continued his lifelong commitment to service. As Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and then Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Clinica Sierra Vista (CSV), he led the organization through transformational growth and enhanced community service.
CSV eventually became one of the largest, most diverse and clinically skilled health and human service nonprofits in the nation. As a FQHC/Community Health Center, CSV provided medical, dental, and mental health services, an accredited graduate education Family Medicine Residency program, and a massive array of health education, substance abuse, nutrition, residential and community development services, and numerous enabling and supportive services. Altogether, Steve served nearly 45 years with CSV.
Steve passed away in February at the age of 77, leaving a tremendous legacy of the Peace Corps's domestic dividend in his accomplishments. His wife, Deidre Schilling, recently made a donation in Steve’s honor to the Peace Corps Foundation in support of Peace Corps Park. “Steve has long been a supporter of the Peace Corps memorial,” said Deidre. She was particularly drawn to the landscaping for Peace Corps Park, because “Steve loved trees.” Steve always loved the challenge of the work, and truly lived “the toughest job you’ll ever love” motto.
Fundraising Update
We continue to make progress toward our goal of $10 million, with $4.2 million raised since our campaign began. We gratefully acknowledge the following donors, who have made generous new contributions and/or pledges since July 25, 2024:
See our growing list of cumulative gifts to the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation!
$10,000 - $24,999
Mary Martia Glass*
$5,000 - $9,999
Ambassador Thomas N. Hull and Jill P. Hull
Donald Lovett
Deidre Schilling family, in honor of Stephen W. Schilling
$1,000 - $2,499
Don Grandis
John Mello
Matthew Niskanen*
RPCVs of South Florida
Other gifts to $999
America's Charities
Thomas Appel
David Baur
Monique Berces-Mardenly
Victor Bullen
Charities Aid Foundation of America
Steven Choi
Luis A. Crouch
Bruce Edwards
Steve Ewing
Michael Fitzgerald
Francis and Chris Gaebler
Martin Gleason
Edward Kloth
Lea Loizos
George Steve Lowry
Irwin Oler
Barbara and Bill Oppenheimer
Christine Elizabeth Saudek
Victoria Tunba
University of Minnesota Retirees
Association
Richard Vobroucek
Jean Wintermute
Christine Wrona Giallongo
Martin Zone
* New gift in addition to prior gift
Donations in memory of Abby Rosenstein (Senegal 2016)
Anonymous
Wendy & Steve Abrams
Susie and David Borovsky
Susan and Michael Fromm
Susie Goldstein
Sam Hershman and Jordan Miller
Steven Lowenstein
Theresa Manley
Sara Mollins
Cindy and David Pogrund
Terry Presslak
Kathy Raby
David and Karen Rosen
Sandy Rosen
Sheri Warsh - Levenfeld Pearlstein
PEACE CORPS PARK AMBASSADORS
(Donors making recurring monthly contributions of any size)
Anthony Carroll
Linda Barnett
Ellen Davis-Zapata
Elizabeth Downes
Greg Emerson
John Feighery
Ann Hopkins
Nancy Kelly
Laura Kettel Khan
Phil Lopes
Marty Mueller
Jessica Rogers
Kathleen Williams-Ging
Darrel Young
Save the Date to Honor the Values of Service
Join PCF’s Chief Advancement Officer Glenn Blumhorst at the 250 & Beyond Symposium, organized by The National Museum and Center for Service and Independent Sector, on October 9. The national campaign to honor, celebrate, and inspire American service marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and honors the values that Glenn works tirelessly for every day on behalf of Peace Corps Park.
This national initiative will kick off on October 9th with a hybrid Service Symposium featuring inspirational keynotes, panels of practitioners, networking opportunities and resources to bring exhibits of service to schools and communities across the country.
Connect with us on social media
Whether or not you’ve been able to support the project with a donation, an easy way to amplify your impact is to give us a boost on your social media platform of choice!
Follow us on any of the following networks, and re-share our posts to help raise awareness among your own community.
@PeaceCorpsPark on Instagram
@PeaceCorpsPark on Facebook
@PeaceCorpsPark on LinkedIn
@PeaceCorpsPark on Twitter / X
Connect with us in person
I continue to host small gatherings and meetings with key stakeholders around the country to build awareness of Peace Corps Park, and I’d love to connect with you or your group to let you know about the project and our vision for how it will bring our community together. Let me know if you’d like to arrange a meetup!
Sept. 30 - Oct. 3 Quebec City: Sierra Leone I Reunion
Oct 9 Washington, D.C. - 250 & Beyond Service Symposium
PEACE CORPS COMMEMORATIVE FOUNDATION
Compassion Generosity Perseverance
Please note our new preferred mailing address:
5636 Connecticut Avenue, NW Ste 42143
Washington, DC 20015
The Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation is the trade name of the Peace Corps Foundation,
a District of Columbia 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
EIN: 01-0554700
