The National Peace Corps Association, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization supporting Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) and the Peace Corps community, announces it has launched a contest for the best short video on YouTube to honor the Peace Corps’ upcoming 50th anniversary.

Called “My Piece of the Peace Corps,” the contest invites entrants to submit one- to two-minute videos about how the Peace Corps, a Peace Corps Volunteer or a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer changed their lives. Winners will receive $500, $1,000, or a grand prize of $2,500.

“We expect the videos to be as diverse as the people who serve in the Peace Corps,” said Erica Burman, director of communications for the National Peace Corps Association who served as a Peace Corps volunteer in The Gambia. “A video could be about a high school teacher whose stories from overseas inspired you, or a volunteer whose service taught you new skills, or maybe a returned volunteer who continues to be a community leader here at home.”

Burman and others at NPCA said the idea behind the contest was to generate awareness about the Peace Corps’ upcoming 50th anniversary. The contest will culminate just in time for the celebrations at the University of Michigan in October, where the idea of the Peace Corps first began 50 years ago. Burman hopes the “My Piece of the Peace Corps” YouTube contest will inspire people to reflect on this important mark in history.

Entrants should upload their videos to NPCA’s contest group on YouTube between July 1 and Sept. 30. Submissions must be less than 120 seconds and cannot have been previously submitted to another contest.

To enter the contest, get details and submit a video, visit http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/VideoContest.