BHS grad heading to Grenada with Peace Corps

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For 40 years, people of all ages and all walks of life but, most particularly, young people, have been serving as members of the Peace Corps, known as “the toughest job you’ll ever love.”

According to its Web site, presidential candidate John Kennedy stood on the steps of the University of Michigan’s student union on Oct. 14, 1960, and challenged the 10,000 people there to volunteer their skills overseas.

Less than five months later, the Peace Corps was created and the first volunteers left for Africa in August 1961.

During its 40th anniversary year, the Peace Corps welcomes Amanda Raker, a 1995 Bangor High School graduate who earned a degree in health education and psychology from Tufts University in 1999.

She has been working for Beth Israel Hospital in Boston as a health educator through its Family Van program, assisting families at risk in low-income neighborhoods.

On Wednesday, July 25, Raker will fly out of Bangor to answer the call first issued four decades ago as she prepares for a two-year tour of duty in Grenada, West Indies.

The daughter of John and Kathryn Farquhar of Bangor is leaving her job and home for the simplest of reasons: She recognizes how fortunate she has been in her own life and she wants to give something back.

Working in Boston’s inner city, she said, she encountered many West Indian people and enjoyed working with them. She wants to extend that effort to helping those still living in their native land.

The program she will be part of “is urban youth development,” she explained. “Grenada has a large youth population and I will be conducting workshops on things like self-esteem, computer literacy and personality development. It will be similar to the work in the van in Boston. That’s a wonderful program and we did a lot of work with older people, but I did love working with the youth.”

Raker said she is “really excited” about the opportunity to be part of the Peace Corps, a process that was a bit more complicated than she realized.

“The application process is extremely rigorous,” she said.

“There are lots of forms to fill out; you must have three references to be nominated for the program; you have to be legally, medically and dentally cleared and interviewed.

“When you are formally invited to join the program, then you have to accept.”

Next week, Raker will fly from Bangor to Miami for a Peace Corps “staging” and then go to St. Lucia for her training.

And while she “really enjoys reaching out and helping people,” Raker said she is also looking forward to being able to travel and see the world as a Peace Corps volunteer.

And while the subject of volunteering outside our country is making news, so is volunteering within our community.

Did you know, for example, that some groups are still involved with the United Way of Eastern Maine’s Lend-A-Hand project?

Lisa Bird, a UWEM volunteer and employee of Georgia Pacific in Old Town, called to report that a group from that company volunteered on Tuesday, July 10, at the Dorothy Day Soup Kitchen at the Salvation Army facility in Bangor.

“We purchased, cooked and served a meal to approximately 130 that day,” Bird said. “This was just one of our Lend-a-Hand projects.”

But what Bird felt was even more important about this volunteer effort is its ongoing need.

“We would like to encourage other businesses to help in feeding the hungry,” she said of an effort “that just takes a small amount of money, time and effort, but the rewards are huge.”

Bird said she knows other area programs that help feed the needy “are looking for help,” and she encourages others to do as the Georgia Pacific folks did, at any time of the year.

If you are a member of the Young family, that includes Young descendant families of Rowe, Wentworth and Sodermark, Pauline Sodermark of East Corinth and Pat Brown of Bangor would like to hear from you, and would like you to attend a Young Family Reunion at 11 a.m. Sunday, July 22, at 449 Tate Road in Corinth.

You are asked to bring a bag lunch or something to barbecue, but table settings and beverages will be provided.

For information, call Brown at 947-8526 or Sodermark at 285-3007.

The tables are reversed and, this time, someone has come to the aid of the American Red Cross Pine Tree Chapter in Bangor.

That organization, which is always there, for anyone, in time of need, lost its response car last winter when emergency services director Bill Reed was responding to a local disaster involving a house fire. But now, thanks to Jack Quirk Sr., the ARC Pine Tree Chapter has a new vehicle.

The staff and volunteers, who use the car day or night to respond to emergency situations, extend their thanks to Jack Quirk and Quirk Auto Park for this generous donation.

For members of the Bangor High School Class of 1941 who are celebrating their 60th reunion this weekend in Bangor, reunion committee member Harold Crosby has some last-minute news.

Crosby learned this week that his classmates are invited to visit, free of charge, the Cole Land Transportation Museum at 45 Perry Road in Bangor.

The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.