Last year, on December 31st, our AFS-USA family lost a dear friend and advocate with the passing of Board Member and longtime volunteer Peter J. Westort following a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. Throughout his extensive career as a professor of accounting and taxation, Peter especially savored his role as host father to many international students. He also served as a group leader for university-level study abroad programs in Peru, Germany, Netherlands, and Eastern Europe. On those trips and others, Peter took particular pleasure in seeing many of the students he introduced to international travel who went on to have careers that let them continue having their own global experiences. Peter and his wife Mary Ann Offer became active with AFS-USA when their own children studied abroad in high school; Peter also served diligently as Treasurer for the AFS-USA Board of Directors from 2017 through 2021. He will be remembered as a loving husband, father, friend, community member, and volunteer leader, and for his easy, infectious laugh that filled a room.
Shortly after Peter’s passing, Mary Ann established the Peter J. Westort Volunteer Leadership Award to honor Peter and his legacy of volunteer service and to enable and encourage AFS-USA chaperones to be able to supplement and add to their AFS international experiences abroad. This year, through the Peter J. Westort Volunteer Leadership Award, AFS-USA chaperones will be welcome to apply for one of four $500 stipends to be awarded to four volunteer chaperones in the coming year. Mary Ann, who was recently on a chaperone trip to Ghana said, “Planning for my chaperone trip to Ghana has been a great help to me in firming up my ideas for how this could work for volunteers. As I spent time with wonderful young returnee friends in Ghana, at really quite reasonable cost, I found myself thinking about volunteers in the future who might be able to do something similar because of this award. I am glad that we are able to make it happen!”
Donors are welcome to contribute to the Peter J. Westort Volunteer Leadership Award that will be used exclusively for AFS-USA Volunteers by visiting: afsusa.org/donate/peterwestort
The application for both Belo and Flight Chaperones will become available on the Help & Learning site in early December (please watch MyAFS News for the announcement). The application form will contain the supplemental questionnaire to apply for consideration for the Peter J. Westport Volunteer Leadership Award, which will only be awarded to Flight Chaperones. The Volunteer Recognition Committee expresses its deepest gratitude and appreciation to Mary Ann Offer and the Offer-Westort family for establishing this fund, and look forward to its continued growth and maintenance from gifts by other friends and volunteers of AFS-USA.