MONROE - For more than one-fifth our nation's history - half-a-century - there's been a Peace Corps.
Tuesday, March 1, marked the day in 1961 that President John F. Kennedy signed the Peace Corps into existence with the stroke of a pen and an executive order.
More than 200,000 Americans share their common role as volunteers in that history this week. At least half a dozen live within 30 miles of Monroe, hundreds of others across Wisconsin. And more than 8,600 are either training to go or serving in 139 countries around the world.
It's hard to tell the exact number of returned volunteers living among us. They slip away from our shores and return two or more years later without much fanfare.
In their hearts and minds burn rich experiences and memories, though. They're the personal histories of the people of the world; they're now our history, too.
- Drs. John and Mary Frantz, of Monroe, and their three children served in the Peace Corps in Afghanistan, 1968 to 1970. During their service, they came down off a 14,500-foot mountain pass after a 3-week, 200-mile hike with donkeys carrying their gear and were congratulated that U.S. astronauts had walked on the moon.
- Bobbie (Benkert) Bernet, postmaster for Juda's post office, trained for the Peace Corps in 1971 and served from 1972 to 1974. She and other volunteers helped build good will among struggling people in Brazil at a time when many there were angry about U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
- Mary Brown Ott, of the Brooklyn area, served her two years in Ecuador and extended twice for another 2 years with the Peace Corps, 1976 to 1980, a time when Jimmy Carter rose from obscurity, ascended to the Presidency and fell in a landslide defeat. She's still stunned to recall a Peace Corps she experienced in telegram conditions, as her grown daughter, now serving in the Peace Corps in the Ukraine, reports cell phones almost everywhere abroad.
- Eric Jubeck, who lives in Monroe and teaches in Beloit after Peace Corps service, 2007 to 2009, still conveys electric excitement of watching Barack Obama's election night acceptance speech from an apartment in Castries, St. Lucia.
The room was filled with black citizens of that tiny West Indies nation, freed to independence just 30 years ago.
They were overwhelmed to witness victory of an African American president in the greatest country on Earth.
All nations can and do revel in triumphs and wince at mistakes, which history records as lessons if people will heed them. With 139 countries the past 50 years gratefully welcoming U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in education, health care, business, environment, agriculture, youth and community development, there's little doubt a lot that's good has resulted.
Ironically, many returned volunteers say, it was they who were helped, taught, uplifted the most during their service in developing host countries.
"It was a great experience. We made some good success," said Bernet, who facilitated completion of community development projects in a huge city, Salvador, in the Brazilian state of Bahia.
"I think most Peace Corps volunteers try to make a difference where they serve, but we probably learned way more than they did in the experience," she said. "Peace Corps helps build America's image; it helps people who really need help in very basic areas of need."
Bernet worked with an existing group that was building a school, and she helped link their work with a large social service agency, channeling resources into the initiative as a liaison.
Tuesday, March 1, marked the day in 1961 that President John F. Kennedy signed the Peace Corps into existence with the stroke of a pen and an executive order.
More than 200,000 Americans share their common role as volunteers in that history this week. At least half a dozen live within 30 miles of Monroe, hundreds of others across Wisconsin. And more than 8,600 are either training to go or serving in 139 countries around the world.
It's hard to tell the exact number of returned volunteers living among us. They slip away from our shores and return two or more years later without much fanfare.
In their hearts and minds burn rich experiences and memories, though. They're the personal histories of the people of the world; they're now our history, too.
- Drs. John and Mary Frantz, of Monroe, and their three children served in the Peace Corps in Afghanistan, 1968 to 1970. During their service, they came down off a 14,500-foot mountain pass after a 3-week, 200-mile hike with donkeys carrying their gear and were congratulated that U.S. astronauts had walked on the moon.
- Bobbie (Benkert) Bernet, postmaster for Juda's post office, trained for the Peace Corps in 1971 and served from 1972 to 1974. She and other volunteers helped build good will among struggling people in Brazil at a time when many there were angry about U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
- Mary Brown Ott, of the Brooklyn area, served her two years in Ecuador and extended twice for another 2 years with the Peace Corps, 1976 to 1980, a time when Jimmy Carter rose from obscurity, ascended to the Presidency and fell in a landslide defeat. She's still stunned to recall a Peace Corps she experienced in telegram conditions, as her grown daughter, now serving in the Peace Corps in the Ukraine, reports cell phones almost everywhere abroad.
- Eric Jubeck, who lives in Monroe and teaches in Beloit after Peace Corps service, 2007 to 2009, still conveys electric excitement of watching Barack Obama's election night acceptance speech from an apartment in Castries, St. Lucia.
The room was filled with black citizens of that tiny West Indies nation, freed to independence just 30 years ago.
They were overwhelmed to witness victory of an African American president in the greatest country on Earth.
All nations can and do revel in triumphs and wince at mistakes, which history records as lessons if people will heed them. With 139 countries the past 50 years gratefully welcoming U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in education, health care, business, environment, agriculture, youth and community development, there's little doubt a lot that's good has resulted.
Ironically, many returned volunteers say, it was they who were helped, taught, uplifted the most during their service in developing host countries.
"It was a great experience. We made some good success," said Bernet, who facilitated completion of community development projects in a huge city, Salvador, in the Brazilian state of Bahia.
"I think most Peace Corps volunteers try to make a difference where they serve, but we probably learned way more than they did in the experience," she said. "Peace Corps helps build America's image; it helps people who really need help in very basic areas of need."
Bernet worked with an existing group that was building a school, and she helped link their work with a large social service agency, channeling resources into the initiative as a liaison.
John and Mary Frantz, who've both retired in the past five years after 60 years of practicing medicine, taught young Afghan doctors in a small medical school during their Peace Corps service.
"We were both raised during the Great Depression when people didn't spend a lot," said Mary. "The Peace Corps experience helped our kids take a modest approach to life. They learned that material things aren't what make us happy.
"We heated our water with wood; we had to be very careful to clean the produce we ate; we had a very simple diet there. The people lived in very simple conditions but seemed very happy. It enriched us and gave us a common background with our children. They actually recruited us into the Peace Corps," she said.
Brown-Ott, who has been working as a school psychologist for 24 years at Stoughton High School, assisted efforts in Ecuador to implement model programs for special education among very young children.
"The technical assistance abroad is only one of three goals the Peace Corps has," Brown-Ott said. "It helps others understand America, and it helps people here understand other cultures.
"This is one of the things Peace Corps did for my family, helping them through my experiences to understand what goes on in another land. We have so much to learn, and other cultures have so much to offer."
Brown-Ott is very proud of her older daughter serving in the Peace Corps and that her other daughter, having just finished a semester in Ghana, is doing an internship with a west African aid foundation.
She believes her own Peace Corps experiences recounted to them, helped them "take the risks to enter and understand another culture."
Jubeck, who helped create a program of special education in a school in St. Lucia, where mandatory secondary education was just implemented in 2005.
He also facilitated establishment of a library and donation of 2,000 books through a Rochester, NY, couple, who owned a factory on the Eastern Caribbean Island.
St. Lucia, which is half the size of Green County and has a smaller population than Madison, gave a lot to Jubeck in return for his volunteer efforts. Not the least of these was a new wife, Malika, and 8-year-old stepdaughter, Makayla, another teacher and her daughter whom he met while serving in the Peace Corps.
They were wed last August and now live with him in Monroe.
"I grew up a ton during that time of volunteer service," said the 2000-Monroe High School graduate. "I would recommend the Peace Corps to anyone interested in it. It was a wonderful 2 years of my life."
Yet for many returned volunteers, the service to others, the role in history doesn't seem to end.
Upon returning to the United States, Bernet helped counsel Asian refugees through a technical college in Sheboygan for a year back in 1975.
Thirty-five years later, she's still helping others, tutoring students through Green County Literacy Council and taking part in a number of other civic organizations and programs.
On her return, Brown-Ott worked for 3 months as a translator in a camp for Cuban refugees relocated to Wisconsin. She's also gotten involved over the years in one of the most active Returned Peace Corps Volunteer organizations in Madison (http://rpcvmadison.org/ )
The Madison group works hard to fulfill the agency's three goals at home and abroad.
It promotes sale of an international calendar each year, which has raised more than $820,000 since 1988, with 100 percent of net proceeds funding more than 70 aid projects abroad - from clean water to libraries, beekeeping to fish farming.
"We were both raised during the Great Depression when people didn't spend a lot," said Mary. "The Peace Corps experience helped our kids take a modest approach to life. They learned that material things aren't what make us happy.
"We heated our water with wood; we had to be very careful to clean the produce we ate; we had a very simple diet there. The people lived in very simple conditions but seemed very happy. It enriched us and gave us a common background with our children. They actually recruited us into the Peace Corps," she said.
Brown-Ott, who has been working as a school psychologist for 24 years at Stoughton High School, assisted efforts in Ecuador to implement model programs for special education among very young children.
"The technical assistance abroad is only one of three goals the Peace Corps has," Brown-Ott said. "It helps others understand America, and it helps people here understand other cultures.
"This is one of the things Peace Corps did for my family, helping them through my experiences to understand what goes on in another land. We have so much to learn, and other cultures have so much to offer."
Brown-Ott is very proud of her older daughter serving in the Peace Corps and that her other daughter, having just finished a semester in Ghana, is doing an internship with a west African aid foundation.
She believes her own Peace Corps experiences recounted to them, helped them "take the risks to enter and understand another culture."
Jubeck, who helped create a program of special education in a school in St. Lucia, where mandatory secondary education was just implemented in 2005.
He also facilitated establishment of a library and donation of 2,000 books through a Rochester, NY, couple, who owned a factory on the Eastern Caribbean Island.
St. Lucia, which is half the size of Green County and has a smaller population than Madison, gave a lot to Jubeck in return for his volunteer efforts. Not the least of these was a new wife, Malika, and 8-year-old stepdaughter, Makayla, another teacher and her daughter whom he met while serving in the Peace Corps.
They were wed last August and now live with him in Monroe.
"I grew up a ton during that time of volunteer service," said the 2000-Monroe High School graduate. "I would recommend the Peace Corps to anyone interested in it. It was a wonderful 2 years of my life."
Yet for many returned volunteers, the service to others, the role in history doesn't seem to end.
Upon returning to the United States, Bernet helped counsel Asian refugees through a technical college in Sheboygan for a year back in 1975.
Thirty-five years later, she's still helping others, tutoring students through Green County Literacy Council and taking part in a number of other civic organizations and programs.
On her return, Brown-Ott worked for 3 months as a translator in a camp for Cuban refugees relocated to Wisconsin. She's also gotten involved over the years in one of the most active Returned Peace Corps Volunteer organizations in Madison (http://rpcvmadison.org/ )
The Madison group works hard to fulfill the agency's three goals at home and abroad.
It promotes sale of an international calendar each year, which has raised more than $820,000 since 1988, with 100 percent of net proceeds funding more than 70 aid projects abroad - from clean water to libraries, beekeeping to fish farming.