Hidden among average Hood Riverites is a small cadre of people who have shared a life-changing, sometimes gruelling experience.
The countries in which they volunteered varied but each former Peace Corps volunteer answered a similar call to service in the name of peace.
"I wanted to serve my country by doing something other than soldiering," said Jeff Hunter, retired Hood River realtor and Peace Corps volunteer (PCV) from 1968-1970.
Hunter's desire to serve while focusing on peace is a sentiment shared by the other dozen or so known local PCVs, along with thousands of current and former PCVs across the country.
March 2011 marks the 50-year anniversary of the founding of the Peace Corps, initiated by an October 1960 impromptu speech delivered by then-presidential candidate John F. Kennedy.
Once inaugurated, Kennedy officially formed the Peace Corps in March 1961.
A nationwide celebration is under way to honor the founding month, and in communities across the country former PCVs are gathering to mark the event.
Local PCVs will be gathering to share their stories and meet one another on March 13, at the home of former PCV Leanne Hogie.
"Since 1961, nearly 200,000 Americans have taken two years to live in villages and cities around the world and provide technical assistance to the world's poorest people," said Hogie in an e-mail to the News.
Hunter, who served in El Salvador as a fisheries advisor and helped establish a fisherman's cooperative, hopes to change his plans to make the gathering.
"The cooperative I started is still operating very successfully today and when I visited in 2005 there were a few white-haired old guys who remembered me," he said.
Though his volunteer work left a lasting economic impact, the greater results, according to Hunter, were the lessons he took home himself.
"I learned that there wasn't much correlation between how much money one has and one's sense of happiness," he said. "I saw that a good life was about getting basic needs met and having a good family.
"I also learned that people everywhere want to live a peaceful life and a life with dignity."
In addition to the larger life lessons, Hunter learned the realities of working in a country with very few resources and poor infrastructure.
"I didn't get too much accomplished on the technical end of things," he said. To illustrate his observation Hunter shared the following stories:
"My (advisor's) boat took almost the full two years to be built and when it arrived, it broke apart on the first trip out to sea while carrying the fishermen I was advising. We had to bail like crazy to make it back from five miles out. None of the other fishermen could swim. It was a terrifying disaster."
Hunter also tried to build lobster pots to replace the practice of individual lobster diving.
"After we dropped the pots the very first time, the next day the bouys disappeared and then we began seeing the rope we used turning up in local handbags," Hunter said. The pots' short-term materials value was greater than the long-term possibility of easier lobstering.
Even with the challenges, Hunter believes his time as a PCV has helped him live a life based on the principles of peace.
"The Peace Corps is a fabulous, life-changing experience no one would ever forget."
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