In 1961 President John F. Kennedy established the US Peace Corps, an idea originally proposed by Minnesota Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, drawing on his call to ask what Americans could do for their country. Among the first Peace Corps Volunteers who answered that call in 1962 and completed their tours in 1964 were Plainview area residents Kenneth Fliés, who served in Brazil, Philip Mahle in Sierra Leone, Walter Mischke in Venezuela, and Charles Rheingans in Thailand. In 1962, although America had some 25,000 incorporated cities and towns, many with populations in the tens of thousands, Plainview had only 1,400 people, making the presence of four early volunteers from this small rural town and surrounding area a distinctive reflection of its citizens, institutions, and culture at that time in American history. By 2014, 215,000 Volunteers had served in more than 139 countries.