By Brian LaMuraglia
The Peace Corps sets three goals for its volunteers:
- Help the people they serve.
- Promote a better understanding of Americans to the people they serve.
- Promote a better understanding of those people to Americans.
That third goal was celebrated this month at Morristown’s 70 South Gallery, which invited B.J. Whetstine, director of the Peace Corps’ Office of Third Goal and Returned Volunteer Services, to see its Spirit exhibition.
More than 120 photographs by 15 past and present Peace Corps volunteers are on display through November 2016.
Whetstine, who taught English in Guizhou, China, for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer, applauded the gallery’s Discovery Days program, which invites area schoolchildren to view the exhibit and learn about the Corps.
“I firmly believe, just as President Kennedy and [Peace Corps founder] Sargent Shriver believed, that volunteerism is at the core of American Values. And that our desire as Americans to get out and help people is really what makes us who we are as Americans,” Whetstine said.
Jack Vaughn Jr. also received a gift on behalf of his late father, who was the second director of the Peace Corps.
Although the Peace Corps only was part of his father’s life for a short time, it was one of the proudest endeavors of his life, the son said.
“Dad would always say the Peace Corps is the most effective branch of our U.S. foreign policy. Because what better way to expose to the rest of the world to what we are as a country than to send our best, most altruistic, bright, engaging people, with no other agenda than to help out local cultures,” said Vaughn.
He added that his father liked to say “you could send a Peace Corps volunteer to the most remote village with no support, and the most basic of language skills, and you come back six months later and there’s a new well built, a market economy going, a healthcare system and a new sense of optimism.”
The gallery feels strongly about the Corps because its owner, Ted Baldanzi, was in high school when President Kennedy, his idol, created it.
Baldanzi sold his software company a few years ago, retired, and then transformed the former Sandrian Photo shop into the 70 South Gallery.
While doing photo projects with students at Morristown High School, he discovered that many teens never have heard of the Peace Corps. This exhibition attempts to correct that situation.
“It has been an incredibly rewarding experience for me and the staff of the 70 Street Gallery to bring [volunteers’] stories to life and to realize the dedication and commitment that they bring to the world,” said gallery Director Ira Black.
Black especially enjoys watching students react to the photos, which depict the lives of people in Afghanistan, Benin, Chile, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Honduras, Jamaica, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda.
“We wanted them to come into the gallery to see the images and connect to the people from other countries and see the similarities between all mankind, regardless of how much they may or may not have,” explained Black.
The Morristown Beard and Red Oaks schools are among area schools that have made field trips to the gallery. Black said there still is time for schools to arrange Discovery Days visits.
–Kevin Coughlin contributed to this report.
MORE ABOUT THE 70 SOUTH GALLERY
