Peter L. Pond - Foundation of The Puerto Rican Peace Corps (later VESPRA)

Foundation of The Puerto Rican Peace Corps (later VESPRA)

In 1963 Pond founded a YMCA chapter in Aguirre, Puerto Rico that served the children of sugarcane cutters. At the request of Don Luis Muñoz Marín, the first elected Governor of Puerto Rico and his wife, Pond initiated in Cayey, Puerto Rico a chapter of the YMCA with the specific focus of finding ways to keep youth and young adults "civically occupied". This program was called YMCA-Cuerpo de Paz de Puerto Rico with an operational base in Henry Barracks, an old army post. The initial group of volunteers was composed of 200 community leaders, 40 university students, 25 teachers and 85 high school students. The group committed to work voluntarily in community development projects for 80 hours per month for a minimum of one year.

In the spring of 1965 Cuerpo de Paz de Puerto Rico was renamed Voluntarios en Servicio a Puerto Rico Asociados (VESPRA), after Pond sought and obtained funding from the Office of Economic Opportunity in Washington, D.C. As a result of Pond's efforts, a joint training session called VISTA/VESPRA I was conducted in Cayey where sixty community leaders and university students were trained and assigned to communities in Puerto Rico and the eastern United States. In the summer of 1966, Pond and his associates, together with the New York Society for Ethical Culture, co-sponsored the Encampment for Citizenship in Henry Barracks with participants from over 50 countries, where they learned the fundamentals of community development, self-government, and civic responsibilities. By 1967 Pond's efforts in fostering community development had moved into the slums of San Juan utilizing local leadership and volunteers from the universities. Systematization of the training program gave VESPRA national visibility.