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Date: 2/23/2023
RUSSELL — Environmental educator Nancy DeWitte Condon of Russell will speak at the Russell Public Library on March 11 from 2 to 4 p.m. about her recently published memoir, “Paddle for Water: Canoeing 5,000 Miles across America with a Message to Share and a Man I Never Intended to Marry.”
Condon, who works for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation as a visitor services supervisor at Heritage State Park in Holyoke, said the book had been planned for decades, but the COVID-19 shutdown finally allowed her to pull it together.
Published last September, it was about a trip she and her partner — now husband — Tom took in a 17-foot canoe from the Pacific to the Atlantic along nine rivers beginning in June 1986, completing Phase II 11 years later in March 1997 on the Missouri River.
“We had only been on the Little Tennessee River prior to this trip,” Condon said.
She said the book was a very long time in the making.
“I wrote and wrote. It ended up being far too long, then I had to chop and chop,” she said about the process. “Then COVID[-19] came along, and I decided maybe this is the time that I finally bring it out of the fiddling stage and publish it.”
“I’m very pleased to have it out and finished and to share my story,” Condon said.
Her talk, the first given in the Hilltowns since the book was published, will be accompanied by visuals of their escapades on the rivers.
“I’ll be showing the presentation and reading some excerpts from my book. It will be mostly storytelling, and sharing some of the adventures we had along each of the rivers,” she said.
“My purpose in conducting the program is three-fold: to give people a sense of adventure, reinvigorate that adventure gene and think about traveling and seeing the world and doing adventurous things,” Condon said.
While her message is straightforward, to “get outside, enjoy the outdoors and have adventures,” the environmental educator also advocates for her audience to be a little more mindful in their water conservation.
“We just came off of nine months of drought. Without any snow pack this winter, we may be in for more of the same. Being very water conscious is something we need to keep in the forefront of our minds,” she said.
In addition to working at Heritage State Park, where she conducts tours and shares the outdoors with the urban population, Condon is also vice president of the Springfield Naturalists’ Club.
“It’s pretty fulfilling,” she said.
Shortly after speaking with Reminder Publishing, Condon and her husband set off to lead a 10-day trip to Belize with the Naturalists’ Club to see the sights, including Mayan ruins, and go birding. And because it is Nancy and Tom Condon leading the trip, they will be going canoeing, she said: “One little excursion.”
Advance registration is required for the free author talk on March 11 at the library, 162 Main St., Russell. To register, email rpldirector@townofrussell.us, or call 862-6221. Coffee and refreshments will be served. For more information about Condon’s book, visit www.paddleforwater.net.