Peace Corps Training on the Big Island

Matinée presentation:

In 1961 President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps, and Hilo, Hawai‘i was selected as a training site for Volunteers preparing to serve in Asia and the Pacific Islands.  In 2011, following the celebration of the Peace Corps’s 50^th Anniversary, several Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and Hawai‘i Training Staff were inspired to create a visual montage that would both bring back memories and document their training experience on the Big Island.  The result is this enlightening and evocative documentary which covers the history of PCV training on Hawai‘i Island from 1962 through 1971, at which time such programs were moved overseas.  During that decade more than 7,000 young Americans participated in training at over 20 sites on Hawai‘i (including the memorable Waipi‘o Valley), Moloka‘i, Maui, Kaua‘i, and O‘ahu, for subsequent service in some 123 countries.

Co-producers and Big Island residents Bill Sakovich and Jim Carr bring us this informative, humorous, and poignant record of how young people prepared to help others during one of our nation’s most idealistic decades … and how the experience affected not only their own lives but those of the local communities and individuals who shared that experience.  Created from some 1,000 donated photographs, Volunteers’ accounts, stories from local residents, and music provided by the late Bunny Brown and the Hilo Hawaiians, “Peace Corps Training on the Big Island” is being presented on two occasions:  Monday evening, February 6, and a “matinée” on the following afternoon, Tuesday, February 7.

Admission to these wonderful programs is free to Museum members, and $3.00 for nonmembers. 

Please support the Museum by becoming a member, and enjoy all Saigo Series programs, all year round, at no charge! 

Seating is limited; first come, first seated. 

On Monday evenings only, additional parking is available next door at Hilo Union School, Kapiolani St. entrance; park, then walk through our green gate in the rock wall.

On Monday evenings, doors open at 6:30PM.  E komo mai!