By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent

Former President Jimmy Carter and Peace Corps Deputy Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet presented the 2011 Lillian Carter Award to Brookline resident Diane Gallagher at a ceremony in Atlanta Wednesday.

Gallagher, 74, spent two years of Peace Corps service in Cape Verde from 1990 to 1992 when she was in her early 50s. She also worked as a Peace Corps recruiter in the Boston Regional Recruitment Office from 1993 to 1998. She continues to promote Peace Corps by speaking at local schools, meetings, and events in the Boston area and sharing stories about her service with Peace Corps trainees about to depart for their host country.

The biennial Lillian Carter Award she received in a ceremony at the Carter Center in Atlanta Wednesday was established in 1986 in honor of President Carter’s mother, who, at the age of 68, served as a health volunteer in India in 1966. The award recognizes an exceptional Peace Corps volunteer who served at age 50 plus and has continued to advance Peace Corps’ efforts to promote a better understanding of people from other nations.

“The Lillian Carter Award is a wonderful celebration of what is best about the Peace Corps -- offering up some of America's best to the world, and bringing the world home to other Americans,” President Carter stated in the press release. “It is always a great thrill for me and my family to participate.”

Gallagher said she had dreamed of serving in the Peace Corps since President John F. Kennedy established the Corps and issued a call to service 50 years ago.

"My husband and I applied to the Peace Corps and were accepted but I became pregnant and put my dream on hold while we raised our family," Gallagher stated in a press release announcing her award Thursday.

 

Link: http://articles.boston.com/2011-05-19/yourtown/29561238_1_peace-corps-lillian-carter-award-cape-verde