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| Title | Re: Peace Corps/Korea 40th anniversary celebration | 2006.11.15 |
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FROM: Charles A. Hobbie 105 Church Place Falls Church Virginia 22046-3620 U.S.A. cahobb@aol.com October 30, 2006 Mr. David Younghoon Kim Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Daesung Group 12th Floor, Dongduk Building 151-8 Kwanhoon Dong, Jongno-gu Seoul 110-300 Republic of Korea Re: Peace Corps/Korea 40th anniversary celebration sponsored by the Daesung Group on October 13, 2006 Dear Chairman Kim: On behalf of the former Peace Corps Volunteers and Peace Corps/Korea staff who participated in, or viewed via the internet, the wonderful event sponsored by the Daesung Group on October 13, 2006, I would like to express our sincerest gratitude to you and to the staff of the Daesung Group for your sponsorship of the celebration. For those of us who could not come to Seoul for the event, being able to participate partially by means of the 뱒treaming?simulcast was very meaningful. I would particularly like to thank you and your family for participating in the dinner and so graciously hosting the event, along with Suzanna Oh and her staff for all the planning and arrangements they undertook which made the celebration so hugely successful. As someone who had planned to come to Seoul but could not because of illness, I am especially gratified to have been able to download the video of the event and to replay your excellent remarks and those of the other speakers, such as former ambassador Yang and former Peace Corps Director Kevin O묭onnell. The entire program brought back to me fond memories of when I was a volunteer in Korea almost forty years ago, teaching English in the Liberal Arts College of Kyungbuk National University, Taegu. I lived with the middle class Korean family of a Presbyterian minister for two years, learned a great deal about Korean life, language, church, and culture, and tremendously enjoyed the experience because of the kindness and friendship of all of the Koreans with whom I worked and lived. As a result of my love for Korea, I continued my involvement with Korea by serving as a training instructor and as the Country Desk Officer for Peace Corps/Korea for another six years after I returned to Washington, D.C. I eventually married a Korean nurse, and we have two grown children. Although my professional life now as a labor lawyer in Washington is no longer directly connected with Korea, my wife and I have maintained strong relationships with many Korean businessmen, government officials, church officials, and immigrant families in this area for the past thirty years. The celebration sponsored by the Daesung Group also demonstrated the extremely positive and powerful effect which Peace Corps service in Korea ?and the accompanying strong appreciation of the Korean people and their culture -- has had on the vast majority of the almost 2,000 former Peace Corps/Korea volunteers. As Kevin O묭onnell mentioned, many former volunteers are faculty members at American universities in Korean and East Asian departments. Many others are government officials or in business associated with Korea. We are all goodwill ambassadors on behalf of Korea. As your kind remarks reflected, perhaps the greatest contribution of programs such as the U.S. Peace Corps and of its Korean counterpart is the promotion of mutual respect and understanding among different cultures and religions throughout the world, as manifested in the friendships and fellowship evident at the celebration on October 13th. Thank you again for your gracious sponsorship and hosting of the event. And please convey my gratitude to Ms. Suzanna Oh, without whom the wonderful evening could not have taken place. If you ever come to the Washington, D.C. area, please let me know, for I would very much like to meet you and reciprocate in some manner for your kindness. Sincerely, Charles A. Hobbie PC/Korea group 8 (Deputy General Counsel American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), AFL-CIO) | ||