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.
There have been numerous stories in the media about O'Sullivan's death.
Click here for
a story from a local Illinois paper.