FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, July 8, 1998

Peace Corps Among 15 New Stamps Commemorating 1960s

Washington, D.C., July 8, 1998—A stamp honoring the Peace Corps is among the 15 new postage stamps that will be issued next year to commemorate the 1960s, according to the results of a nationwide balloting released today by the U.S. Postal Service. "The popularity and success of the Peace Corps is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the 150,000 Americans who have joined the Peace Corps since 1961, including nearly 6,500 volunteers who are now serving in 81 countries," said Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan. Gearan noted that the Postal Service\'s announcement comes at a time when President Clinton has proposed significantly expanding the Peace Corps from its present level of 6,500 volunteers to 10,000 by the year 2000. "The Peace Corps enjoys strong bipartisan support in Congress because we have stayed true to President Kennedy\'s vision of promoting world peace and friendship by sending skilled men and women to countries that need and want our help," Gearan said.
The Peace Corps stamp, which has not been designed yet, will be released in June 1999 with the other 14 winners for the 1960s in the Postal Service\'s "Celebrate the Century" series. This will be the second Peace Corps stamp; the first was an eight-cent stamp issued in 1971, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the agency founded in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy.
Other 1960s stamps to be issued include ones commemorating man\'s walk on the moon, the peace symbol, the first Super Bowl, the Rev. Martin Luther King\'s "I Have a Dream" speech, the Beatles, and the Vietnam War.
Voting for the 1960s stamps took place during May. More than 930,000 ballots were cast, representing more than eight million individual votes as tabulated by two independent accounting firms.

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