Building Peace Ep. 6: First Cuts
Building Peace Ep. 6: First Cuts
Dear Supporters,
Last week, at our fabrication partner in Madison, Wis., a diamond blade touched actual Peace Corps Park granite for the first time – not a sample – and Peace Corps Park went from a plan on paper to a physical object under construction.
The photo below shows the first pieces of Virginia Mist granite being cut and shaped into the pavers that will be installed in Washington, D.C. You can see the brilliant ripple effect on the left that was our design team’s
inspired solution to a feature designed for vision-impaired visitors.
I've been waiting so long to be able to send you this image of the moment the design drawings and the site plans and fabrication samples and the years of advocacy from our passionate community finally turn into real stone. And it’s all of our 2,234 supporters who have made this possible.
Last month we issued the project’s penultimate “notice to proceed” with Quarra — the formal green light for them to begin fabricating every stone element of the Park. That single signature unlocked the machines, which won't stop until every paver, bench section, and inscribed surface has been shaped by hand and blade in that shop.
There is just one construction phase left after this. Once the stonework is complete, it has to make the journey east — loaded onto trucks to be installed, piece by piece, on the Park site across the street from the National Mall. That installation phase is the last chapter of construction, and it's the gap we're racing to close. We can't break ground, and we can't move a single finished stone to Washington, until it's fully funded, along with the almost $1 million cash endowment we must provide to the National Park Service for the ongoing maintenance of Peace Corps Park in perpetuity.
We have $5.5 million left to raise before we can issue our final “notice to proceed,” and there's a real, finite window left to be part of making it happen.
We want this whole community to add their name to the list of people who invested in this tribute to our shared legacy. There have been now 250,000 Peace Corps Volunteers since the program started, and thousands more return home every year. We want this project to represent as much of them as possible.
In July I saw again the passion of our membership first-hand at the National Peace Corps Association's annual conference in Washington, D.C. We had a table in the exhibit hall, and for two days we met RPCVs from every era, stopping by to see the renderings, ask about the granite, and tell us they wanted in.
Here's the thing I keep coming back to: A park funded by a handful of major donors is a park. A park funded by thousands of us — RPCVs, staff, host country partners, families who've never set foot outside the U.S. but believe in what we did overseas — is a movement.
Every gift becomes a part of that movement, at every size. A $25 gift puts your name on the list of supporters who made this real, just as a $25,000 one does. And for those who reach $250,000 in cumulative giving, we’re planning to recognize them on the Park's on-site donor plaque.
The stone is being cut right now. Help us make sure it has somewhere to go.
Yours in service,
Glenn A. Blumhorst
Chief Advancement Officer
Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation
President and CEO, National Peace Corps Association (2013-22)
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, Guatemala (1988-91)
Campaign Progress
To date, our community of supporters has raised $8,523,000 of the $14,000,000 budget for Peace Corps Park, leaving $5.48 million of our goal.
The Friends of Sam Farr campaign, launched on Sam’s 85th birthday on July 4, aims to raise $250,000 to include Sam's name on the on-site donor recognition plaque. To have your gift attributed to Sam, please include his name when you make your donation.
We gratefully thank the following 59 supporters who have made new donations and/or pledges since July 29, 2026, contributing $31,577 to the construction of Peace Corps Park:
* Indicates new gift in addition to previous contributions
Explore the full list of donors here
$20,000 - $49,999
Joseph Oliveri
$1,000 - $4,999
John Arango*
James De Deo*
Matthew Green
Helen Lowman
Ross Snow*
Other gifts to $999
Sue Hoyt Aiken*
Michael Baldwin
Albert H. Barclay*
Katherine Baylor
Karina Chappell
John Douglas Cuillard*
Rachel Dann
Marieme Foote
Mike Freed
Brian Garfield
Diane Gordon
Eric Graber*
Heather Hallett Thurston
Wallis Harsch*
Moira Hess
G David Hicks*
Frank Honore
Linda Howat*
Allison Hull
Nancy Huwe
Nicole Mansfield
A. Daniel Mizroch
Stuart Moskowitz
Jonathan Newell*
Bradley Phelps*
Brian Rudolph
Mark L. Schneider*
Edmund Seiders
Douglas Sheer*
David Venzon*
Daniel Weissman
Jean Wintemute*
Charles Yonkers*
Steve Zwick*
PEACE CORPS PARK SUSTAINERS
(Contributions from monthly recurring donors)
Anonymous
Ellen Davis-Zapata
Luis Manuel Garzon-Negreiros
Cynda McMahon Family
Marty Mueller
Nancy Nuechterlein
Jessica Rogers
James D. Wagner
Connect with us on social media
Whether or not you’ve been able to support the project with a donation, an easy way to amplify your impact is to give us a boost on social media. Follow us and re-share our posts to help raise awareness in your network!
@PeaceCorpsPark on Instagram | @PeaceCorpsPark on Facebook | @PeaceCorpsPark on LinkedIn
PEACE CORPS COMMEMORATIVE FOUNDATION
5636 Connecticut Avenue, NW Ste 42143
Washington, DC 20015
The Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation is the trade name of the Peace Corps Foundation,
a District of Columbia 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
EIN: 01-0554700
