John F. Kennedy photo

Remarks to a Group of Peace Corps Volunteers.

August 30, 1962

I TAKE great pleasure in welcoming to the White House a very extraordinary group of American men and women who are Peace Corps volunteers.

I think an impression has been created that only young men and women join the Peace Corps and serve our country abroad. It is true that only young men and women do that--but those who are young in spirit.

We have here a distinguished group of Americans with many talents who already have led full and useful lives in the service of their country and who now are going to serve their country again. Perhaps we could go right across here and have you say where you are going.

[The Peace Corps volunteers named their destinations. The President then resumed speaking. ]

Here we have a man 76 years of age and he is going to Pakistan as a civil engineer after having been a civil engineer all his life.

So I must say we're delighted to have them, and I hope that their desire to serve will not only inspire others to join the Peace Corps but also will indicate to many of our Americans who are getting older, as we all are, that life really is unlimited. Here we have people in their sixties and seventies who are going to serve the cause of mankind all around the world--76 and down through the seventies and sixties. I think it shows how much talent we have in this country among those who have retired in the formal sense but who have many, many useful years ahead of them, not only in the Peace Corps but here in the United States, and I hope their talents will be used.

We're very glad to have you and your presence inspires us all.

Note: The President spoke at 12:30 p.m. in the Fish Room at the White House. The 12 Peace Corps volunteers making up the group were scheduled to go to areas such as Ethiopia, West Pakistan, Malaya, Brazil, India, and Peru.

John F. Kennedy, Remarks to a Group of Peace Corps Volunteers. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/236692

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