FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, February 26, 1998

Peace Corps Day '98 Comes to the Washington, D.C. Metro Area

Peace Corps Day \'98 Comes to the Washington, D.C. Metro Area Peace Corps Celebrates 37th Anniversary on Tuesday, March 3
Washington, D.C., February 26, 1998—Commemorating the 37th anniversary of the Peace Corps, more than 250 returned Peace Corps volunteers will "go back to school" next Tuesday, March 3, in the Washington metropolitan area to speak about their overseas experience as part of Peace Corps Day \'98.
Highlights of Peace Corps Day activities in Washington, D.C. include:
Satellite Hook-Up: South African Students talk with D.C. Students
Where: Peace Corps Headquarters, 1990 K Street, NW, 7th Floor
When: 10 to 11:30 a.m., Tuesday, March 3
What: About 30 fifth-grade students from the Marie H. Reed School in Adams Morgan join Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan and Education Secretary Richard Riley in communicating with South African students and their pen pal C.D. Glin, a Howard graduate and current Peace Corps volunteer in South Africa. Peace Corps Festival at the Capital Children\'s Museum
Where: Capital Children\'s Museum, 800 Third Street, NE
When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday, March 3
What: Hundreds of area school students will be entertained by folk tales told by returned Peace Corps volunteers and taught songs, crafts andgames from various countries.
HHS Secretary Shalala (A Former Peace Corps Vol.) Visits Local School
Where: Garnet-Patterson Middle School, 10th and U Streets, N.W.
When: 2 to 2:45 p.m., Tuesday, March 3
What: Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala will talk with about 20 eighth-grade students about her experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Iran in the 1960s. Shalala will offer colorful anecdotes and teach students a few words in Farsi.
Because interest in the Peace Corps remains so strong at home—more than 150,000 individuals contacted the agency in 1997 to learn about volunteer opportunities—and the need overseas so great, President Clinton has proposed an expansion of the Peace Corps, putting the agency on the path to 10,000 volunteers serving overseas by the year 2000, a 50 percent increase over the current number of volunteers.

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