Peace Corps Press Release:
Over the weekend the Peace Corps community once more received the sad news of the death of a serving Peace Corps volunteer. Blythe Ann O’Sullivan, a 25-year-old native of Bloomingdale, Illinois, was killed in Suriname, the victim of an apparent accident while working near her site on December 6.
“Blythe was an exceptional Volunteer and dedicated herself to improving the lives of the people of Suriname,” said Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter in a Peace Corps press release. “Blythe’s death is a tremendous loss for her loved ones, family, the Peace Corps, and the people of Suriname.”
Blythe, 25, served as a small business advisor after being sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer in August, 2006. She worked with members of her community on a water project, and with women’s organizations to fund and develop a village community center. A native of Bloomingdale, Ill., Blythe is survived by her parents, Joan and John O’Sullivan of Bloomingdale, Ill.
In her aspiration statement written when she joined the Peace Corps, Blythe said, “I hope that I can be a good Ambassador of the American values of hard work, determination, and perseverance. I want the people I am working with to know that I want to learn their culture and participate in it.”
In one of her final calls from Suriname to her parents, she said to them, “I am so humbled by the challenges the Suriname villagers must conquer day-after-day. Here, each waking moment must be spent satisfying basic needs that, in the U.S., are virtually satisfied at birth. We can never do too much for these fellow citizens of our one world.” Her unselfish service with broad smile shall forever grace the minds of the Brokopondo families that came to love her as their own.
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