Washington, D.C., June 23, 1999—At the Peace Corps\' "Next Generation" celebration tonight at Georgetown University, a new stamp honoring the Peace Corps was unveiled. It is one of 15 new postage stamps that will be issued in September to commemorate the 1960s as part of the U.S. Postal Service\'s "Celebrate the Century" series.
"The Peace Corps stamp is a commemoration of the hard work and the ethic of service exhibited by the more than 152,000 Americans who have joined the Peace Corps since 1961," said Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan. "The stamp will go a long way in helping us raise awareness of our efforts to expand the number of volunteers to 10,000 by the year 2003."
Chosen by a public vote as one of the "most significant people, places, events, and trends" of the 1960s, the Peace Corps joins other honorees including Man Walks on the Moon, "I Have a Dream," The Vietnam War, The Beatles, Woodstock, Star Trek, Ford Mustang, and the Peace Symbol.
The stamp itself is a re-creation of a Norman Rockwell painting from his series on the Peace Corps completed during the 1960s. The painting is of a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia, one of the countries Rockwell visited.
The 1960s stamps, including the Peace Corps stamp, will be issued together on a commemorative sheet and will be available for purchase in mid-September 1999. For more information, visit the Postal Service Web site at www.usps.com.