By sara Aeikens, Creative Connections

Reading an Albert Lea Tribune column can be a dangerous motivator to aid in squelching streaks of smug contentment. Chandler Stevens&8217; column on the editorial page recently challenged readers to help establish a global Peace Corps. He was very specific in the goals he envisioned, which were also tied to environmental issues our future generations face.

I was impressed enough by his vision for positive change to e-mail him a note of thanks for his thought-provoking information about the Peace Corps and his ideas.

Stevens, an older generation Peace Corps volunteer in the last decade, responded promptly by inviting me to get involved. Being trained in community activism, he also phoned me, and within minutes connected me in a three-way conversation with a national Peace Corps advocacy representative, who asked me if I could arrange a local meeting in several days.

I was asked to contact people in the Albert Lea area who might be interested in the idea of doubling the size of the Peace Corp as an effective tool of sharing our technology skills, as well as an effective way of promoting peace.

From serving in the Peace Corps from 1964-66 in Venezuela, I had a sense of how programs stimulated progress in the countries served. In the rural Andes Mountains, my partner and I established a handicrafts co-op, where around two dozen women changed the economy of their families by increasing their weekly earnings to exceed what their husbands usually earned in a month.

As a Peace Volunteer, I found that what we learned and brought back with us to share productively in our lifelong communities in the United States was just as significant as what we did in the countries where we served.

As a transformative experience that impacted important values in my life, the skills I learned helped me to found a food co-op that is now the oldest grocery store in Albert Lea. When the co-op developed a stable foundation of membership, other leaders took over. The business continues to increase its natural and organic product sales and promotes environmentally friendly living.

Seven years ago I decided I was too concerned about money and wanted to learn a bit more about gratitude and generosity, recalling village people offering whatever they had, even with only one chair in their living room. The Freeborn County Wellness Workshop Fund became a vehicle for me to carry these values out by sponsoring programs to promote health, wellness and peace.

My Peace Corps experience affects me daily. I am aware I have everything I need and my material wants are little. I buy very little new from my clothes to car to home, and I recycle at every level. Gifts and memorials are donations mainly local organizations that are a part of this value system, or may include making or buying homemade or handcrafted items.

In my neighborhood, this neighbor-helping-neighbor concept flourishes, and I choose to nourish it in our tiny corner of the world, partly because I recall how much positive change was reaped from similar circumstances in the Peace Corps.

It is disheartening for me to read dialogues that include sarcasms, generalizations, name-calling, lack of personal examples and lack of facts backed by research and that set up oppositional situations. Part of Peace Corps training includes communication skills to connect, not disconnect into a &8220;we-they&8221; separation when disagreements occur. It is not about &8220;helping or rescuing&8221; but about learning and education as a team and by example.

Eight people (seven more than I expected) showed up at the Hy-Vee Deli to hear how the Peace Corps increasing its size might promote peace in the world. Two of us were former Peace Corps volunteers. The other person had served twice as long and in two countries.

The national traveling representative, Rajeev Goyal, traced his origins to India and served his Peace Corps time in Nepal. Goyal told us that one of the reasons he came to Minnesota to talk about Peace Corps goals, is that Minnesota represents the highest number of volunteers in the country. If Minnesota is that committed, perhaps we could make more of a difference if we got together with those who have seen the results and believe this kind of connection works.

Find someone who has lived in a foreign county, done mission work or served in the Peace Corps and ask them how it has affected their values. Then if you choose to believe it will make a difference, write a personal letter to your congressperson and ask him or her to back funding for &8220;More Peace Corps.&8221;

Sara Aeikens resides in Albert Lea.