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A History of the Magnolia State Returned Peace Corps Volunteers The first meeting of the Magnolia State Returned Peace Corps was held on Saturday, May 30, 1998 at the Mississippi College School of Law in Jackson. Organized by L. Patricia Ice, Benin 1983-85, TEFL, the meeting was attended by approximately eighteen RPCV’s mainly from central Mississippi and the Delta region. Patricia had moved alone to metro Jackson in February 1998, and having been active with the Southeastern Michigan Returned Peace Corps Volunteers in metro Detroit, wanted to meet and greet other RPCV’s in the area. Knowing no other RPCV’s in Mississippi, Patricia advertised the meeting in the Clarion Ledger Newspaper’s Ask Jack Sun column. It was decided at that first meeting that we would continue to meet monthly, at least the first year, and we did just that. We moved our next meeting to the sanctuary of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Jackson on N. State Street, and this has become our regular meeting place. We also had a meeting in October 1998 at the home of RPCV’s Gloria and David Lightwine in Ridgeland, in addition to a meeting at Trinity Lutheran Church on W. Highway 18 hosted by RPCV Bob Blanton, his wife Joan and son Geoff. Also in October of 1998 we affiliated with the National Peace Corps Association in Washington, DC.As a result of the affiliation, we were visited in 1998 by Deputy Peace Corps Director Charles R. Baquet, who, along with the Peace Corps recruiting office in Atlanta, hosted a happy hour for us at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Jackson. We, ourselves, hosted a recruitment table at the Jackson State University annual international festival and at a Millsaps College career fair. In April of 1999, through the gratuitous efforts of our former Treasurer, RPCV John May, Jr., we were incorporated. In June 1999 we had our first annual fish fry/pool party picnic at the home of RPCV’s Ellen and Jim Steeby in Inverness. The picnic was preceded by the annual B.B. King Homecoming concert in Indianola and was a great success. We have made the fish fry an annual event. In August 1999 RPCV and Vice President Keith Jabati represented our group at the National Peace Corps Association in Minnesota and he and former Secretary RPCV Christy Chaney rose to the occasion to coordinate the creation and sale of our first tee-shirt. In addition, Keith single-handedly orchestrated the order and sale of the International Calendar produced by the RPCV’s of Madison, WI. In April of 2000 we held a general meeting in Starkville and we had our first Habitat for Humanity project in Jackson (although we got rained out!). Also in April we hosted a Bon Voyage recruitment party for Peace Corps Atlanta. We hope these are just the humble beginnings of an organization that will do great things and have BIG fun.On July 29 we celebrated our second annual fish fry/pool party at the home of the Steeby's in Inverness. We are now making preparations for Dane Smith, President of the National Peace Corps Association. Check the calendar for times.
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