Kennedy’s public service vision alive in older Peace Corps volunteers
Posted on 02 September 2009
Permanent URL of this article: http://retirementrevised.com/career/kennedys-public-service-vision-alive-in-the-work-of-older-peace-corps-volunteers
Senator Edward M. Kennedy will be remembered for many legislative achievements, but one of the most important is his commitment to policies supporting public service and volunteering–a Kennedy family theme with roots in John F. Kennedy’s creation of the Peace Corps in 1961.
Senator Kennedy left his mark in this arena as recently as last year when he led the charge to enact the Serve America Act, a bill that funds a dramatic expansion of national community service programs. The bill-which is named for the senator-comes at a time when Americans already have been stepping up their involvement in all kinds of volunteer activities in the last few years, with a good deal of the growth coming from midlife and older adults.
As for the Peace Corps, most people consider it a young person’s adventure, but 14 percent of today’s volunteers are over age 30. There’s no age limit on participation; the oldest volunteer turned 85 recently and about 5 percent of volunteers are over 50-the same generation that was inspired in their youth by JFK and his brothers. (This Peace Corps mini-website describes the program’s work with older volunteers).
Shirley and Danny Sherrod applied to join the Peace Corps in 2006. Danny had retired in 1999, after Danny sold the small manufacturing business he owned in Ft. Worth, Texas; Shirley retired in 2000 from her job as a nurse practitioner. They were young-he was 47 and Shirley was 50-and traveled around the U.S. for a while in a recreational vehicle, working some of the time as volunteers for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and in the National Parks.
When they applied to join the Peace Corps, Shirley was 55 and Danny was 53. “We had traveled a great deal throughout the developing world, and always enjoyed meeting people,” says Danny. “We also had met a number of Peace Corps volunteers, and it seemed to us that as a traveler, you can only get to meet local people at the most basic level. We wanted to really make friends and get to know people and the local culture.”
In Panama, both teach English as a second language; Danny also helps train others to teach English at a local university, and he helps with programs promoting local tourism. Shirley works with a local women’s group that provides job training for low-income women and she’s developing a birth control program.
Older volunteers sometimes encounter difficulties with family members who don’t understand their decision to ship off to parts unknown, but that wasn’t an issue for the Sherrods, who have three adult children from earlier marriages ranging in age from 30 to 41. “Our children were used to us taking off and doing things and being out of touch a couple months at a time,” says Shirley. But she does admit that it can be difficult being separated from her grandchildren, age 11, 13 and 17.
But benefits have far outweighed any negatives. Says Danny, “The Peace Corp slogan used to be ‘The toughest job you will ever love.’ Even though they don’t use the slogan any more, it’s an incredibly accurate description of the work that volunteers do. Peace Corps is a great experience that tests you on a seemingly endless number of levels.”
The Sherrods Peace Corps stint ends in August, 2011. What next? “We might try to stay in the Peace Corps by becoming a country director, trainer or recruiter,” Danny says. “Or, maybe we’ll go back to our old life in the RV.”
