[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3704-3705]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        IN MEMORY OF KATE PUZEY

  Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I rise to acknowledge the second 
anniversary of a tragic event that happened on March 11, 2009, in the 
nation of Benin in Africa. On that tragic day, a young lady by the name 
of Kate Puzey was tragically murdered in her sleep in her house at 
night.

[[Page 3705]]

  Kate Puzey was a Peace Corps volunteer from Georgia, who went to 
Benin with all the dreams, hopes and aspirations of the program John F. 
Kennedy created over a half century ago. She had served there for 
months. She was teaching young African children. She was sharing 
wisdom. She was sharing knowledge. She was sharing her love of mankind. 
She was representing the United States in the way the Peace Corps 
intended it.
  Unfortunately, her life was lost. I did not know Kate Puzey before 
her death. I only know her after her death. But I know her through her 
parents, through her schoolmates, and through her fellow Peace Corps 
volunteers in Africa who told me the story of Kate Puzey, and also, 
tragically, stories of other Peace Corps volunteers who have lost their 
lives or have sacrificed in the service of our country.
  Tomorrow night, at 6:30, on the steps of the Capitol, there will be a 
candlelight vigil, acknowledging the second year anniversary of the 
death of Kate Puzey. Kate's mother will be here, as well as Peace Corps 
volunteers, as well as people from the Peace Corps organization. It 
will be a solemn moment, but it will also be a very sacred moment.
  As the ranking member of the Africa Subcommittee, I have traveled to 
Africa on a number of occasions, and I have been in a number of African 
countries. On each visit, I arrange either a breakfast or a lunch, 
where I host the Peace Corps volunteers from the United States in that 
country.
  Without exception, and in every case, these are the finest of 
Americans.
  Just 2 years ago, when I was in Tanzania, I met a couple--73 and 72 
years old--who in their retirement decided they wanted to give back and 
help their country and serve their mankind. They volunteered to go to 
Tanzania and build a library where there was not even a library, a book 
or a school, and they built it.
  In Kenya, I visited with young people who went to Kenya to help carry 
the message of democracy, to help share, in the terrible slum of 
Kibera, the promise and hope of education, of good nutrition, of 
knowledge, of hard work, and of democracy.
  We as a country are blessed to have men and women who serve us in 
many capacities--those who may serve in the House or the Senate, those 
who serve in the branches of the military overseas in harm's way--but 
equal to their service is the service of our Peace Corps volunteers. 
Kate Puzey is an example of what those Peace Corps volunteers do--at 
its height.
  When I attended her funeral, I sat and listened, for over 2 hours, to 
her fellow volunteers, her former classmates tell about the Kate Puzey 
they knew: the academic genius, the committed volunteer, the person who 
loved life and loved people and wanted to share that love wherever she 
could.
  The volunteers in Benin told of her countless sacrifices to help 
young people and children in their troubled land, in their difficult 
country, to understand better their life's future and to not look to 
poverty as a lifetime of shackles but to look to opportunity as a 
lifetime of hope.
  Tomorrow night, when the vigil takes place on the steps of the 
Capitol, I will not be here, unfortunately, but I will be saying a 
special prayer for the life of Kate Puzey, for her family, and for what 
she and all volunteers who have sacrificed in the Peace Corps have done 
for the United States of America, and, better than that, for mankind.
  We have many great people to be thankful for in this world, but 
tomorrow, at 6:30 p.m., on the steps of the Capitol, there will be a 
pause to recognize the life, the legacy, and the sacrifice of Kate 
Puzey and I will be there in spirit and I will be with her in prayer.
  I yield back and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. INOUYE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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