Peace Corps Commemorative
The Peace Corps program was established by Executive Order 10924, which was issued by President John F. Kennedy on March 1, 1961. The program was legislatively authorized by Congress on September 21, 1961, with passage of the Peace Corps Act (Pub.L. 87–293). Between 1961 and 2013, over 215,000 Americans joined the Peace Corps. The National Peace Corps Association, a nonprofit organization for Peace Corps alumni, established the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation to advocate for a commemorative to honor the mission of the Peace Corps and the values on which it was founded.
International Peace Corps Secretariat
In October 1962, the United States hosted forty-three nations at a conference on volunteer service (the "International Conference on Middle Level Manpower") chaired by Vice-President Lyndon Johnson in Puerto Rico. At the conference the Secretariat was called for and forty-one of the forty-three countries at the conference joined. It commenced operations soon there after in January 1963. On May 9, 1963, the Directors and Chief Administrators of the International Peace Corps Secretariat met in the White House Cabinet Room and President John F. Kennedy shared his hope that the exchange of ideas between the members of different countries will strengthen the United States Peace Corps and stimulate humanitarian work in developing nations. Eventually eighteen countries had volunteers serving abroad.