The RPCVSF Trip to Thailand is a GO departing USA November 6, 2019.

There is still space available.

If you are interested, Please e-mail travel@rpcvsf.org NOW.

Twenty-six RPCVs and guests enjoyed a delicious Georgian-Armenian lunch at Kavkaz Restaurant on Sunday, May 19^th.  In addition to the great fellowship and wonderful food, the attendees selected a Peace Corps Partnership Project to which the $260 collected and $260 RPCVSF match (a total of $520) was donated.

The project selected is in the Republic of Georgia (fitting) and is called “Growing Seeds & Skills: Teaching Business to Domestic Violence Shelter Residents.”  The program will teach 15-20 survivors of domestic violence marketable small-business skills and organic-growing practices through a series of 6 workshops at a new greenhouse.  In addition to the workshops, the project includes the purchase of necessary supplies and materials for the existent greenhouse structure.

Once the participants in the program are ready to transition from life at the shelter to independent living, they will possess the increased capacity to work in horticulture, at community markets, and may even feel confident enough to start their own small growing businesses.

Many thanks to those who attended the partnership lunch for contributing to this project and to the future of the beneficiaries of the donation!

Thanks to the Park Rangers and Fire Rangers, the Biscayne Bay Kiwanis, our wonderful teams, 51 RPCVs & their families, and the organizing by Genevieve Bazer for our 20th Annual Outing to the Everglades National Park as well as the post event wrap up at the home of RPCV David Garcia in Homestead.

Lots of Guests, Guides, Park Rangers and Chaperones

And Lots of Official Resident Greeters !

A Very Handsome Anhinga on The Anhinga Trail

The anhinga(/ænˈhɪŋɡə/; Anhinga anhinga), sometimes called snakebird, darter, American darter, or water turkey, is a water bird of the warmer parts of the Americas. The word anhinga comes from the Brazilian Tupi language and means devil bird or snake bird. The origin of the name snakebird is apparent when swimming: only the colored neck appears above water so the bird looks like a snake ready to strike. They do not have external nares (nostrils) and breathe solely through their epiglottis.

Like other darters, the anhinga hunts by spearing fish and other small prey using its sharp, slender beak.

Hello, my name is Ali and that's Ms Ali chatting in the next photo

You can read about our 2018 outing to the Everglades at the end of this page.

This project was fully funded by the end of April, 2019!

Behind these students are the remains  of a science lab and a computer lab that burned in 2016 in their senior high school in the rural Volta area of Ghana. PCV Chelsea Currie, their physics teacher from Ft. Lauderdale, has invited us to be part of the reconstruction of the labs by contributing through the Peace Corps Partnership program at:

Hello from Ghana!

My name is Chelsea Currie and I am an Education volunteer with Peace Corps Ghana working as a physics teacher in a Senior High School in a rural town in the Volta Region. I am from Fort Lauderdale and graduated from the University of Miami and I was able to attend two RPCV events before I left for my service in May of 2017. 

I am in my final term in school and our grant was just approved, so I am reaching out to the South Florida community for support in funding the project.

The top need and priority for the school is rebuilding of the science and computer lab which suffered a fire during Christmas of 2016. Since that time, the almost 500 students of the school have been lacking in their science and ICT practical aspects. A completed lab facility will allow the student to be prosperous in their courses, exams and future careers. 

I am asking if there is a way for this to be shared with the RPCV community so that anyone who feels compelled or is able to support the project can do so. Our goal is to begin building in May to please consider donating soon! Thank you in advance for your support! 

May 2, 2019 - PARIS, la plus belle ville du monde, like you have never seen it. One week in September between 9/15 and 9/29/19. This is an unusual trip in that you can join travel@rpcvsf.organd a companion or strike out on your own with the assistance each day of travel@rpcvsf.org. Travel knows the city, knows the language, knows the history, knows the sights.

 

You will have your picture taken in front of Notre Dame at kilometer zero. Travel has dining suggestions for the budget and for the big splurge. Travel also has suggestions for excursions outside the city: Versailles, Giverny, Malmaison. You must stop by Napolean’s tomb at Hotel des Invalides. How else can you be sure the old boy is still in the ground, so to speak? You have to walk by the Rodin museum to get there. Your life is incomplete until you have seen the Eiffel Tower up close live and in person. Those plastic versions do not do it justice.

You will be staying at the four star Hotel Mayfair unless you want something less expensive. Location, Location, Location. It is a block away from La Place de la Concorde and the Champs Elysees in one direction and a long block to the entrance of le musee du Louvre in the other direction.

Email travel@rpcvsf.orgif you are interested and we will keep you advised.

Click Paris 2019.pdf for Things We Are Going to See.

RPCVSF  ANNUAL  GENERAL  MEETING

OCTOBER 20, 2018  -  94th AeroSquadron Restaurant  -  Miami Int'l Airport

Our annual Spirit of Service Learning Award event, held on Saturday, October 6th, at the Miami Springs Lions Club, was well-attended by RPCVs, awardees and friends.  After some mingling and a scrumptious, potluck meal, awards were given to the following people:

Finalists - Aileen Ochoa, Fundamentals of Speech Communication, Miami Dade College - Kendall Campus; Carlos Gonzalez, English Composition, Miami Dade College - Kendall Campus; and Susannah Brown, Art Education in Elementary & Secondary Schools, Florida Atlantic University.

Winners - Dr. Ann Graziotti, Community Health Nursing Practicum & Advanced Concepts Practicum, Miami Dade College - Medical Campus; Dr. Joshua Schriftman, ENG/SOC Publishing, Justice & the Freedom of Speech, University of Miami; and Dr. Pamela Hall, Senior Seminar - Psychology Capstone Course, Barry University.

One additional finalist, Liza Greenberg, College Prep Reading and Writing & English Composition, Miami Dade College - InterAmerican Campus, and one other winner, Dr. Jan Sokol-Katz, Juvenile Delinquency, University of Miami, were unable to attend.

All recipients expressed gratitude to RPCVSF for the award and recognition they received.

Front row - Finalists and Winners - Dr. Ann Graziotti, Susannah Brown, Dr. Joshua Schriftman, Carlos Gonzalez, Aileen Ochoa

Back row - RPCVSF SSL Committee Members - Mary Lamberts (Thailand, 70-72), Dave Garcia (Kenya, 88-90), Linda Whitmyre (Malaysia, 67-69),  Josh Young (Malawi, 84-86 & Paraguay, 88-90), Ana Ciereszko (St. Vincent & the Grenadines, 69-71)

Dr. Pamela Hall

RPCV Josh Young welcomes attendees

We had 6 attend the Yellow-Green Farmers Market on Sunday, September 30th, where we found RPCV Linda Alvarez selling honey from Florida Keys' bees.

From left: Michelle Kelsey, Barb Junge, Linda Alvarez, Ann Gleeson, Seamus Gleeson, Lenore Sek. Not pictured: Sharon Alvarado.

Friday - Dinner at the Tower of Pizza, Key Largo

Saturday - September Meeting of the RPCVSF Board of Directors

Dear Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of South Florida,

My name is John DeLeo Jr, and I am a PCV from Fort Lauderdale, FL, currently serving in the TEFL program in Kyrgyz Republic. I have attached a picture of me wearing my 2017 Everglades Outing t-shirt while volunteering at a kindergarten in Osh City, Kyrgyzstan, during my school break. Thank you..

August 11, 2018 - Partnership Dinner in Miami at a famous Argentinian restaurant and grill.  For details and to register, just click on Partnership  Dinner in the Calendar at the top of this page.

August 5th, 2018 - Partnership Dinner in Hollywood raised $210 which is 100% matched by RPCVSF for a $420 contribution to the Peace Corps Partnership Program. See the photos of this event in Our Photo Album in the Menu to the left.

These two dinners supported a Girls Greenhouse Initiative in Armenia (led by a PCV from Florida); and a Resources for Girls' Empowerment and Equality in Moldova.

FYI - The Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP) connects Volunteers and their communities with the private sector in the U.S. and around the world in order to fund community initiated and led projects.

PCPP is a proven mechanism for supporting small community-based grants.  Over the past ten years, PCPP has funded over 7,200 Volunteer projects in nearly every sector, totaling more than 19.8 million dollars in grant funds. Last year alone, PCPP funded 930 projects in 57 countries, touching the lives of 1.5 million people across the globe.

Over the same 10 year period, RPCVSF sent to PCPP over $16,800 that was contributed by diners and matched by RPCVSF. We have been doing Partnership Dinners  for almost 35 years! Our thanks to all the diners for their contributions and all the wonderful restaurants who have made our contributions possible.

30 Folks Attended Partnership Dinner at an Argentinian Restaurant in Miami - 11AUG18

For more photos of the Event, please see Our Photo Album to the Left

RPCVSF's Donation through the Peace Corps Partnership Program helped build this school!

For More Photos of the Construction, Please see Our Photo Album to the left.

July 28, 2018 - Marlins vs Washington Nationals

 

We had a turnout of 19. Great game (2-1 Marlins in 10) plus post-game fireworks.

For more photos, please see "Our Photo Album" on the left side of this page

This year 29 RPCVSF members, 11 Kiwanis Club of Biscayne Bay members and six park rangers from the Everglades National Park hosted 78 wonderful kids and 37 accompanying adults from five homeless shelters for a day in the Florida Everglades. The total attendance including guests was 169.

For more photos of the day, please click on "Our Photo Album" on the left side menu.

Everglades National Park is a 1.5-million-acre wetlands preserve on the southern tip of the U.S. state of Florida. Often compared to a grassy, slow-moving river, the Everglades is made up of coastal mangroves, sawgrass marshes and pine flatwoods that are home to hundreds of animal species.

 Among the Everglades' abundant wildlife are the endangered leatherback turtle, Florida panther and West Indian manatee. The Everglades is the only place in the world where the American alligator and the American Crocodile coexist.