WASHINGTON, D.C., May 28, 1997—As part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Marshall Plan that helped rebuild Europe, President Clinton today highlighted a Peace Corps volunteer serving in Poland as one example of the spirit of cooperation and partnership between the people of the United States and the rest of the world.
Kristine Lyons of Farmingdale, Maine, a Peace Corps teacher in a secondary school in Elblag, Poland, attended the speech in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, this afternoon at the invitation of the President. In addition to teaching, Lyons, 25, also counsels and tutors orphans in her community, and last year started a summer camp for the children at her local orphanage.
The President was in the Netherlands to commemorate the Marshall Plan, in which the United States gave billions of dollars and goods and services to help rebuild Europe after World War II.
For more than 36 years, Peace Corps volunteers have been working side-by-side with citizens from other countries to encourage peace and friendship and to promote social and economic progress. Today, Peace Corps volunteers are serving in Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, the Baltics, Poland, and eastern and central Europe.
Lyons, a 1995 graduate of Ithaca College, is one of nearly 6,500 Peace Corps volunteers currently serving in 91 countries around the globe. Volunteers work in the areas of education, business, health, the environment, and agriculture. Since 1961, more than 148,000 Americans have joined the Peace Corps.