July 20, 2022 - There are 3 openings for the Namibia Safari March 16-30, 2023

For more information, please contact travel@rpcvsf.org

July 16, 2022 The RPCVSF Summer Picnic at Crandon Park with about 45 Folks

NPCA Leadership Transition Announcement

June 17th, 2022 For more than 40 years, the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) has united and supported a thriving Peace Corps community. Connecting thousands of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, over 180 affiliate groups, and countless partners, NPCA continues to grow and increase our collective impact at home and abroad. We remain committed to this purpose and to providing support, resources, and advocacy. We do this work together, because we are united in our belief that our differences are our strength—and by drawing on those differences, we can have real and lasting impact.  Today, we begin a new chapter at NPCA. The Board of Directors announces the departure of NPCA President and CEO, Glenn Blumhorst. We are grateful for Mr. Blumhorst’s years of leadership and dedication to the Peace Corps through service, advocacy, and support, and wish him well in his future endeavors. Kim Herman has been appointed as Interim President and CEO with full authority while an Executive search is conducted for NPCA’s next leader. Jed Meline, former Vice Chair of the Board, is serving as Interim Board Chair. Prior to accepting this new role, Mr. Herman was the NPCA Board Chair. Mr. Herman served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic doing rural community development from 1967 to 1969, after graduating from Washington State University. Building on his Peace Corps service, Mr. Herman has had a distinguished career focusing on affordable housing across the nation. He has over 35 years of legislative experience working with the Washington state legislature and Congress, and he has served on the boards of numerous nonprofit organizations, public agencies, and advocacy organizations. The NPCA Board is delighted he has agreed to continue to serve the Peace Corps community in this role.   We believe that with this transition in leadership, NPCA can further thrive within an inclusive community, and with a workplace culture, that draws strength from our differences, celebrates diversity, and finds connectedness in our shared values. Additionally, the NPCA Board is working on several initiatives to ensure a positive path forward for the organization. Further announcements will be shared shortly. We appreciate your continued support through this transition. For questions, please contact president@peacecorpsconnect.org.

June 14th, 2022

Friends,

The Afghan Family Dave Garcia's team has been sponsoring for the past 4 months will be moving to Rock Island, Illinois  on June 18th. The families' Father, Najib, had relatives living in Rock Island, and they helped Najib obtain housing and arranged a job opportunity for him as well.  The decision to move will probably be a wise one..... The cost of rent in Rock Island is half what he was paying here in Miami and, he is expecting a substantial increase in his salary.  I believe one of the biggest reasons he decided to move his family north was that he has a brother, an Uncle and a Cousin that have been established there for a number of years. He is certainly anxious to be near them.

So...our team, Steve Rawlins, Josh Young, Sally Rowley, Erik Waller, and  Matt Lord  are wishing the family all the best.  We cannot tell you how rewarding this experience has been for us as individuals and as a team.  We accomplished more than we thought we could and wish that we could have done more. Besides making them feel at home with household furnishings, we were able to register and obtain Food stamps for the family,  enroll them in Medicaid,  helped provide Dental Care for the Mom and the Kids, set up a banking account, helped obtain SSN numbers, and much more. We spent hours with them...standing in line at different social service and medical offices........we shared many meals with them.......enjoyed  their company and had a lot of fun. 

RAA helped us in every way they could, they were very supportive......... And they continue to assist a number of refugee families, one of which is Taylor Majher's RPCVSF RAA #2. Taylor's family lives  in the same building as our family did, and both teams and families have worked together and  have become close.

 Please keep a lookout for updates on how her family is doing,  we will post news about their progress on the Website and in our Newsletters.  We hope that you will continue to support both Taylor and RAA in their refugee assistance efforts.

Lastly , we would like to thank all of you.... for the financial support you gave,  the assistance you offered, the concern you showed and the prayers you sent.

     Dave Garcia  

  RPCVSF President

dgarcia53@Yahoo.com

   PH. 786 553 5993

Seeking a museum director

July 20, 2022 - The Museum of the Peace Corps Experience has announced a search for a part-time director. This person will help shape a compelling vision, increase the Museum’s revenue, guide fundraising and expansion of programs, and work with volunteer members. Responsibilities include: communications, website development, donor cultivation, and managing the Museum’s exhibits, as well as its growing collection of objects and stories. Full position description is available on indeed.com and at pcmuseumhr@gmail.com.

Applications will be reviewed on August 15 2022.

Click Here for Information

Click for Information

RPCVSF Invites you to join our greatest travel adventure yet

Namibia March 16 through March 30, 2023

July 2nd, 2022 - You will see a dazzle of zebras (plains and mountain), a pride of lions, a tower of giraffes, a thunder of elephants, desert-adapted elephants, a pride of cheetahs, at least one leopard, hundreds of seals, antelopes, more antelopes, warthogs, guinea fowl, birds and more birds, historical sites, four star+ lodges, Etosha National Park; world’s oldest desert; world’s largest sand dunes; lots of South African wine. Sundowners every day. Farewell dinner Joe’s Beerhouse and Greg’s Big Birthday Bash. (Birthday was almost 2 years ago but there have been distractions.)

$6850 land package double occupancy   $500 single supplement

Trip Leader: Greg Zell    Travel Agent: Africa Adventure Company

• 1.  You must be fully vaccinated AND boosted against covid-19.

        2.   You must take an anti-malaria drug. Generic Malarone is suggested.

• The Trip Leader will assist in getting a prescription. The malaria in Namibia is not deadly but you will wish you were dead.

 

Procedure: Email gregzell19@gmail.com or travel@rpcvsf.org on or before Friday, July 15 that you intend to take this trip. I need 2 days to work out the single room and roommate requests. We will make our $1712.50 deposits to the travel agent on Monday, July 18, 2022. The trip is contingent on 14 travelers. You are not committed until you make your deposit.

The Trip Leader is not compensated.

RPCVSF receives no remuneration from this event.

This is not a strenuous undertaking.

Full payment due December 15, 2022

Air package: Air travel is chaotic now. We will look again in 2 or 3 months. The Travel agent can assist. You can use frequent flier miles.

For information about the trip, please click below:

Ultimate Namibian Group Safari - 2x Nights Huab Under Canvas 6-20-22.pdf

Those volunteering: L Geiter, C Bush, G Fitzpatrick, M Lamberts, A Siegel, T Majher, D Garcia  Missing from photo: M Bush

Food insecurity is defined as not knowing where your next meal is coming from.  Over 11% of the people in South Florida are food insecure. Feeding South Florida is one of the largest agencies addressing the food insecurity problem.

One of the of the RPCVSF group projects approved by the Board this year was to provide volunteer assistance to Feeding South Florida. The first group of 8 RPCVSF members joined about fifteen volunteers from other groups and a few individual volunteers for a three-hour shift at Feeding South Florida at their warehouse in Pembroke Park on Saturday, January 22^nd.

Dave Garcia and Alan Siegel volunteered to clean up and sort a large donation of pet products when others failed to step forward. The rest of the group volunteered to work as food inspectors, ensuring that food donated by supermarkets, other companies and individuals was in good packaging and that the “best by date” was within a modified expiration date.

The inspected food then moved to a sorting team then a repackaging team so the food could be sent to community kitchens and pantries. At the end of our shift, not only had all the pet products been sorted, but the inspection, sorting and repackaging teams had processed 19,000 pounds of food (9.5 tons!), which translates about 15,000 meals. After the session most of the team went to Cilantro, a nearby Thai restaurant for lunch.

The plan is to provide a volunteer team to work at Feeding South Florida each month. Our next appointment is Saturday, February 12th.  New members can be added to the group, but at least a few days before. We will have a date for March soon. Watch the RPCVSF BLOG which is just above for dates and details. If anyone has questions about volunteering for Feeding South Florida, please contact Larry Geiter at lgeiter@gmail.com.

ABOUT FEEDING SOUTH FLORIDA

Feeding South Florida is a member of the Feeding America network of food banks and the leading domestic hunger-relief organization serving Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe Counties. Providing support for 25 percent of the state’s food insecure population, its mission is to end hunger in South Florida by providing immediate access to nutritious food, leading hunger and poverty advocacy efforts, and transforming lives through innovative programming and education.

 

Feeding South Florida distributed over 119 million pounds (99 million meals) of food last year, to over 1 million individuals through direct-service programs and a local network of approximately 300 nonprofit partner agencies.

Our president had the opportunity to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity  during the week of Feb. 14  thru the 18.  While attending the Building Blitz of eight Homes in the South Dade  County Area he met and enjoyed working with Sam Hopkins a returned Peace Corps volunteer ( Guatemala 2013-2015 ) who works for and  is part of the Saff at H4H.

 If you have never volunteered to help out at Habitat for Humanity, you have missed a really fun and rewarding opportunity. Construction skills are not necessary, the seasoned staff enjoying training and making the volunteers feel welcome. 

.

Hopefully we will be able to sign up a number of returned Peace Corps volunteers for the next Building Blitz Habitat for Humanity initiates. Information about further opportunities to volunteering will be forth coming. 

For Info about Upcoming Virtual Peace Corps Recruitment Events, Click

Peace Corps Recruiter Updates

 

Bike Aid, the annual cross country bikeathon for global development, will relaunch in the summer of 2022, focusing on climate change.    The multiroute bike ride from the West Coast to the East Coast of the USA is slated to take place June 14 to August 10, 2022.

 

Cyclists will engage citizens and politicians in over 250 communities across the United States to discuss solutions to climate change.    The ride will have nine routes covering all 50 states, culminating in Washington DC to implore the U.S. Congress to act decisively on climate change.  Bike Aid is actively recruiting cross country riders and hosts in each of the communities. 

 

The routes will start in Seattle, Portland OR, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Tallahassee and Montreal, all meeting in Washington DC.  Additional short routes are planned for Alaska and Hawaii.    Each rider will raise money to support environmental projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America that mitigate climate change.  

 

As background, Bike Aid was founded in 1986 by a group of Stanford University students.   The cross country ride attracted 80 riders in its first year, and ran for 19 consecutive years, through 2004, with over 1100 participants.    The ride raised over $2 million for development projects sponsored by the Overseas Development Network in Africa, Asia and Latin America.    In July 2021, Bike Aid alumni met for a reunion in Washington DC and decided to relaunch the event in 2022.  

 

For more information, contact Bike Aid at:    

Phone: 301-944-3370
Email:   info@bikeaid.us

Website:   www.bikeaid.us 

RPCVs Rally to Be Considered in

Federal Loan Forgiveness Program

Courtesy of The New York Times: The U.S. Department of Education recently announced an overhaul of the troubled Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. Applicants who devote 10 years work in the public service sector (and make 120 qualifying student loan payments during that time) are eligible to have further loan payments forgiven. In a press release, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona says the changes are an attempt to live up to the promise of the program and could impact more than 550,000 borrowers. But as a recent New York Times story makes clear, Peace Corps Volunteers fell through the cracks. We need to fix that. A number of returned Volunteers have mobilized to seek widespread relief that enables them to receive qualifying months towards PSLF automatically for any months in which their federal student loans were in a deferment or forbearance status due to Peace Corps Service.

SHARE YOUR STORY: Go to NPCA’s Action Center to write President Biden and your members of Congress.

GET CONNECTED on this issue through  the Facebook group RPCVs for PSLF Relief.

Write President Biden Now

Happy 60th Birthday Peace Corps

Zoom Fiesta - February 28, 2021

A big thanks to everyone who participated in our Holiday zoom gathering yesterday!!  The event was a lot of fun, and it was so great to hear members from both our Gulf Coast group as well as the Miami group recounting stories from their Christmas pasts in their respective countries!  Let's aim to make this an annual event!