PEO (Philanthropic Educational Organization) Chapter IJ organized and hosted a significant ceremony on October 21 as U.S. Congressmember Salud Carbajal presented a framed “Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition” to Bee Bloeser in recognition of “a lifetime of service and dedication and in celebration of your 88th birthday. Your work as a speech pathologist has had a lasting impact across diverse communities, and your extraordinary role in the global campaign to eradicate smallpox stands as an enduring inspiration.”
Bloeser, a PEO member of Chapter ET, is the author of the engrossing memoir Vaccines and Bayonets, which describes her and her late husband Carl Bloeser’s remarkable work in the 1960s fighting smallpox in Africa amid tribalism, terror, and the Cold War.
Bee joined her husband, along with their two young children, Charles and Ginger, bravely traveling to Nigeria, West Africa, and Equatorial Guinea, living and working in grave danger to banish smallpox, which kills approximately 30 percent of its victims and leaves survivors blind, deformed, and disfigured.
The Bloeser family’s life illustrates the importance of USAID and the urgency of building diplomatic goodwill, in addition to recognizing and being prepared to prevent the spread of future deadly diseases and pandemics.
As Congressmember Carbajal said, “The world owes you a big debt of gratitude and I am so happy to be here today to let you know that.”
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