Forty years ago, when Lillian Carter applied to the Peace Corps, the idea of a 67-year-old woman volunteering to serve as a public health worker in India was so unusual, Carter had to have her head examined before being accepted.
The Peace Corps requested that she undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Carter, the mother Jimmy Carter, who would later become president, passed the assessment and went on to become one of the Peace Corps’ most famous volunteers.
After her death in 1983, the organization established an award in her name to recognize volunteers 50 and older for outstanding service.
The current pool of possible recipients for that honor might surprise even Miss Lillian, as she was known. These days, hundreds of volunteers in their 50s, 60s, 70s and even 80s serve as Peace Corps volunteers in 75 countries.
“That image of the ‘typical’ young, just-out-of-college Peace Corps volunteer has changed,” says Gretchen Learman, spokeswoman for the Peace Corps. “Age is no barrier to joining the Peace Corps. In many cases, it’s an asset, since senior volunteers bring so much expertise and so much knowledge to their work.”
When the organization began in 1961, fewer than 1 percent of volunteers were older than 50.
Today, that figure has increased to 6 percent – and the Peace Corps hopes even greater numbers of older Americans will consider making the 27- month commitment to serve.
To accomplish that, the Peace Corps has developed marketing materials geared toward the 50-plus audience. Brochures include the faces of mature volunteers. Staffers in a number of recruiting offices are former older volunteers.
In its Los Angeles office, the Peace Corps has a recruiter who works primarily with military retirees and other seniors. The Peace Corps sends representatives to AARP conventions and does outreach to the Retired Teachers Association.
Learman says the Peace Corps does its best to address medical and financial concerns older volunteers might have.
“We recognize that older volunteers might have special needs and try to accommodate them when we can,” Learman says. “For example, we might post a senior volunteer to an area with medical facilities nearby.”
While serving, all volunteers receive medical and dental coverage, vacation time, and transportation to and from their host country. If a volunteer becomes seriously ill, the Peace Corps provides transportation to the region’s closest American-standard medical facility or to the United States.
