CAIRO SET TO OBSERVE PEACE CORPS ANNIVERSARY

CAIRO, Ill. -- Returned Peace Corps Volunteers from Southern Illinois, Southeast Missouri and Western Kentucky will gather here early next month to observe the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Peace Corps.

The celebration, one of many throughout the nation, will be held March 2 to commemorate President John F. Kennedy's March 1, 1961, signing of the order creating the Peace Corps.

Fran Bond, associate director of the Peace Corps Fellows Program in Washington, D.C., will be guest speaker during an evening barbecue.

More than 140,000 Americans have served in the Peace Corps in more than 90 countries. Currently more than 7,000 volunteers are serving overseas, 38 percent of them in Africa.

Returned volunteers will join Cairo residents to plant trees, restore an old theater building to be used for a community center, and other activities. The barbecue, a dance and slide show showing scenes from countries where volunteers have served will be held. Returned Peace Corps volunteer James Kinder, who served in Korea and Micronesia, will be master of ceremonies.

Additional information about the event, sponsored by the city of Cairo and the Peace Corps Fellows Program, are available by calling Donna Raynalds at Cairo City Hall, (618)-734-4127.

"We are receiving good response for the day's activities," said Raynalds, a returned Peace Corp worker who is interning at Cairo, helping the city of 5,000 people renew their community, block by block.

Raynalds, who is working on her master's degree at Western Illinois University, is one of about 350 returned Peace Corps Volunteers who are helping a number of small cities in the U.S.

Six years ago Raynalds was teaching woodworking and technical drawing at a small secondary school in Swaziland with the Peace Corps.

Thirty returned volunteers have already indicated they will attend the activities at Cairo, and more are expected.

Volunteers may register at Cairo Public Library, 1609 Washington, when they arrive in town. Bus tours of the city will be provided, ending at the Gem Theater in downtown Cairo.

A barbecue lunch will be held at noon at a small park across from the theater. Tree planting, work on the theater and other activities will start at 1:30 p.m.

The evening meal will be served at St. Joseph's School gymnasium, 2008 Walnut, at 5 p.m. Following dinner and the slide show, volunteers have been invited to the Cavalier Club, 2511 Commercial, for a dance.