CARBONDALE - Ella Phillips Lacey didn't retire as a community health educator. Instead, she broadened her emphasis to include the whole world.
Lacey, 66, recently received the President's Volunteer Service Award for her service in the Peace Corps.
A retired health education professor from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Lacey has dedicated the last decade of her life to helping others.
Although Lacey was honored for her aggressive work with polio eradication over the last seven years, it was her period in the Peace Corps that really began a strong pattern of service to others.
Lacey's two-year Peace Corps stint from 1995 to 1997 placed her in Malawi, Africa, as a child survival specialist.
Her responsibility was to ensure children could make it past the age of 5 without falling prey to malaria, malnutrition or measles.
Lacey arrived in Malawi on her 55th birthday. She discovered that the country is a startling mix of contrasts.
She spoke of beautiful Lake Malawi, which makes up 20 percent of the country's land. Poverty is another prominent fixture of the country, and one that is difficult to reconcile with what she described as "breathtaking natural beauty."
"There are some people who didn't wear shoes because they didn't have shoes, or they wear torn and tattered clothes because that's the only garment they have," Lacey said. "The poverty was such a striking contrast to the beauty."
Although Lacey was a sole volunteer in her particular health clinic, she was one of 96 Peace Corps volunteers who were stationed in Malawi. She describes the experience as life-changing, but there were times that being one person in a country of such poverty was overwhelming.
"There are days you feel like, 'What can you really accomplish?'" Lacey said. "There are others days that you can think, 'Wow, I'm really doing something here.'"
Christine Torres, public affairs specialist for the Chicago Regional Office of the Peace Corps, said Lacey is a good example of an older volunteer contributing immensely to the global cause.
"She's keeping that spirit of volunteerism alive and inspiring those around you to do the same," Torres said.
Since retiring from the Peace Corps, Lacey has spent her time working with Stop Transmission of Polio (STOP), an organization dedicated to eradicating the threat of polio.
She has traveled to Ghana, Ethiopia, Egypt, Sierra Leone and several times to India to educate about the importance of the polio vaccine.
Age restrictions by the World Health Organization will prevent Lacey from heading back into the field as a polio worker, but she's researching other options for service.
She hopes to go to Tanzania to work with women on economic development, but she's not ruling out any options. A second stint in the Peace Corps Crisis Corps is another option she's researching.
Lacey is also active in Southern Illinois, lending her considerable talents to Rotary, Delta Sigma Theta and the "I Can Read" program.
Going into the Peace Corps is a decision she doesn't regret, but she said it's not one that should be made lightly.
"A person has to look within themselves to see if they have that to give," Lacey said. "If they can give up their home and their home base and say yes to that, it's one of the greatest experiences they can have."
Showing posts with label Peace Corps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peace Corps. Show all posts
Wednesday, 13 June 2007
Friday, 1 June 2007
School Board member sends books to Malawi
TIGARD – A retired Tigard-Tualatin educator is now on a mission to help educate the youth of a far-off African country.
Art Rutkin, who retired several years ago as the principal of Mary Woodward Elementary and now serves on the Tigard-Tualatin School District Board of Directors, is hard at work arranging for books to be sent to Malawi.
The goal is to fill a 20-foot container with 500 to 600 boxes of books and ship it next fall, according to Rutkin.
His friends, Fowler Middle School teacher Dale Hill and his wife Lucy, have been involved in the project to send textbooks to Malawi, and their daughter Emily, who attends Tigard High School, started her own drive at the school.
“We re-boxed the books collected at Tigard High and are storing them in the central office warehouse,” Rutkin said. “Emily said that there was no club at school behind this – it was taken on as a random act of kindness.
“It’s kind of neat. Emily put this together and made it into a contest, and the winning class got a donut party.”
Rutkin’s roots in Malawi go way back – he was a Peace Corps volunteer there in the 1960s and met his wife Lois while on the job.
A group of former Peace Corps volunteers formed the non-profit group, Friends of Malawi, and about 10 years ago, former Peace Corps volunteer and Portland resident Shannon Brown started shipping books to the country, one box at a time.
“While I was at Mary Woodward, I got her some books,” Rutkin said. “Last fall, Lois and I wanted to do more, and we’re now collecting books and also raising money to ship the books in September.”
Rutkin estimates that shipping the container will cost about $8,000, and he hopes that people will want to contribute to this worthy cause.
“If people are interested, we will give them a thank you note and receipt that shows they’ve made a tax-deductible donation,” Rutkin said. “We’re hoping to get more kids in the schools involved, and we’re also collecting school supplies and hygiene items to send along with the books.
“We’re committed to doing this. (Superintendent) Rob Saxton has been supportive of this effort. It’s going to happen. We’re trying to monitor the books we get, making sure they’re in decent shape. A lot of schoolbooks get discarded when they get out of date and new ones are purchased. You can’t sell them – there’s no market for them. Schools store them, and they just sit – that’s what got us going.”
Rutkin still remembers the primitive conditions he found in Malawi while volunteering with the Peace Corps.
“Books to them are like gold,” he said. “The saddest fact it that bad as it was then, it’s worse now. The schools have dirt floors, openings in the walls for windows, no screens, no desks, nothing.”
Malawi is a land-locked country about the size of Pennsylvania and located in Southeastern Africa. Great Britain annexed the area known as Nyasaland in 1891 and made it a protectorate in 1892.
Britain combined Nyasaland with the colonies of North and South Rhodesia between 1951 and 1953, and in 1964, the country became the independent nation of Malawi.
In 2005 Malawi faced its worst food shortage in more than 10 years, leaving more than 3 million people – 34 percent of the population – without adequate food supplies.
In this third-world country, old books are better than no books.
According to Rutkin, the Tigard-Tualatin School Board recently adopted a new series of reading books, so schools in the district will no longer be using the old ones.
“We’re trying to get them into the hands of those who need them,” he said. “In addition to reading books, there’s also old math and science books that are still relevant. Because Malawi is a former British colony, everyone speaks and reads English. We’re pretty excited.”
People may send checks made out to Friends of Malawi to Rutkin, 14040 S.W. River Lane, Tigard 97224.
For more information, call him at 503-590-5104.
Art Rutkin, who retired several years ago as the principal of Mary Woodward Elementary and now serves on the Tigard-Tualatin School District Board of Directors, is hard at work arranging for books to be sent to Malawi.
The goal is to fill a 20-foot container with 500 to 600 boxes of books and ship it next fall, according to Rutkin.
His friends, Fowler Middle School teacher Dale Hill and his wife Lucy, have been involved in the project to send textbooks to Malawi, and their daughter Emily, who attends Tigard High School, started her own drive at the school.
“We re-boxed the books collected at Tigard High and are storing them in the central office warehouse,” Rutkin said. “Emily said that there was no club at school behind this – it was taken on as a random act of kindness.
“It’s kind of neat. Emily put this together and made it into a contest, and the winning class got a donut party.”
Rutkin’s roots in Malawi go way back – he was a Peace Corps volunteer there in the 1960s and met his wife Lois while on the job.
A group of former Peace Corps volunteers formed the non-profit group, Friends of Malawi, and about 10 years ago, former Peace Corps volunteer and Portland resident Shannon Brown started shipping books to the country, one box at a time.
“While I was at Mary Woodward, I got her some books,” Rutkin said. “Last fall, Lois and I wanted to do more, and we’re now collecting books and also raising money to ship the books in September.”
Rutkin estimates that shipping the container will cost about $8,000, and he hopes that people will want to contribute to this worthy cause.
“If people are interested, we will give them a thank you note and receipt that shows they’ve made a tax-deductible donation,” Rutkin said. “We’re hoping to get more kids in the schools involved, and we’re also collecting school supplies and hygiene items to send along with the books.
“We’re committed to doing this. (Superintendent) Rob Saxton has been supportive of this effort. It’s going to happen. We’re trying to monitor the books we get, making sure they’re in decent shape. A lot of schoolbooks get discarded when they get out of date and new ones are purchased. You can’t sell them – there’s no market for them. Schools store them, and they just sit – that’s what got us going.”
Rutkin still remembers the primitive conditions he found in Malawi while volunteering with the Peace Corps.
“Books to them are like gold,” he said. “The saddest fact it that bad as it was then, it’s worse now. The schools have dirt floors, openings in the walls for windows, no screens, no desks, nothing.”
Malawi is a land-locked country about the size of Pennsylvania and located in Southeastern Africa. Great Britain annexed the area known as Nyasaland in 1891 and made it a protectorate in 1892.
Britain combined Nyasaland with the colonies of North and South Rhodesia between 1951 and 1953, and in 1964, the country became the independent nation of Malawi.
In 2005 Malawi faced its worst food shortage in more than 10 years, leaving more than 3 million people – 34 percent of the population – without adequate food supplies.
In this third-world country, old books are better than no books.
According to Rutkin, the Tigard-Tualatin School Board recently adopted a new series of reading books, so schools in the district will no longer be using the old ones.
“We’re trying to get them into the hands of those who need them,” he said. “In addition to reading books, there’s also old math and science books that are still relevant. Because Malawi is a former British colony, everyone speaks and reads English. We’re pretty excited.”
People may send checks made out to Friends of Malawi to Rutkin, 14040 S.W. River Lane, Tigard 97224.
For more information, call him at 503-590-5104.
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