FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, July 1, 2003

Outstanding Senior Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Honored for Service

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 1, 2003 – Last week, Former President Jimmy Carter presented the Lillian Carter Award to outstanding senior Returned Peace Corps volunteer Tony Gasbarro at the Carter Center. The Lillian Carter Award recognizes an outstanding Peace Corps volunteer who, at the time of service, was age 50 or older and who has demonstrated a commitment to the Peace Corps’ third goal: to help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

	Former President Jimmy Carter presented the Lillian Carter Award to outstanding senior Returned Peace Corps volunteer Tony Gasbarro.

After graduating from Colorado State University, Gasbarro became a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic in 1962. There, he worked with a District Ranger of the Dominican Forest Service. Gasbarro trained Dominican foresters in fire control, timber sales preparation, logging road location, and forest measurements.

After retiring as a forestry professor from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Gasbarro returned to the Peace Corps as a volunteer in El Salvador from 1996-98 at the age of 57. He helped to implement a forest management plan and develop a timber harvesting program with the Association of Human Development in the village of La Montanona. Gabarro also taught environmental education at local schools and worked to develop a public relations program for tourists that visited the area.

When Gasbarro returned to the U.S. in 1998, he continued to raise funds schools in the village. Since an earthquake in 2001 devastated much of the country, Gasbarro continues to raise money in the U.S. to rebuild communities and expand educational opportunities for children. He has raised funds to support a scholarship for students in El Salvador, provided natural resource management leadership to the 4-H program in Alaska, secured grants for infrastructure projects in El Salvador, and has spoken to more than 5,000 students throughout Alaska about his Peace Corps experience.

The Lillian Carter Award, established by the Atlanta Regional Office of the Peace Corps in 1986, is awarded every two years to salute outstanding service by senior Peace Corps volunteers. Lillian Carter joined the Peace Corps in 1966 and served for two years as a health volunteer in India. At the time of her service, she was 68 years old. The award is sponsored by the Atlanta Regional Peace Corps Office and the National Peace Corps Association.

Since 1961, more than 168,000 volunteers have served in the Peace Corps, working in such diverse fields as education, health, information technology, business development, the environment and agriculture. Peace Corps volunteers must be U.S. citizens and at least 18 years of age.

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