Volunteer Profiles

Betsy Kruse

In 1975 when Betsy bought a five and a half acre wooded parcel in Candia, a neighbor pointed out a deer run across her new property. She realized that preserving just her own section of that wildlife habitat wouldn't do much good without protected lands all around, and her dream of a "greenway" connecting Bear Brook and Pawtuckaway State Parks began. Betsy became a leader and recorder of meetings in Candia and Deerfield that brought conservation commission members from area towns together to discuss cooperative land protection efforts. She was a founder of Bear-Paw Regional Greenways in 1995, and has been an Executive Board member and our faithful secretary for all of our ten years.

Betsy is a New Jersey native, but she enjoyed her childhood summers spent at camp in Vermont and always planned to make New England her home. Following her degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, she first taught in Wisconsin, but found her way back to New England when her job search was answered by the Manchester school district. She taught physical education at a junior high school there for 14 years. After additional certification she was an elementary school counselor for another 15 years until her retirement in 1999.

The unique house Betsy had built in her Candia woods has two octagonal sections supported from central poles with radiating beams like umbrella spokes. The odd and interesting corners and angles are filled with mementos and framed photographs of her travels around the world including her latest from Egypt and Peru. Other photos are from just beyond her doorstep where towering pines host a variety of wildlife. Though her five-plus acres aren't enough for a conservation easement, Betsy has willed her home and property to Bear-Paw. Her dream is that someday it will serve as a nature center in the middle of a completed greenway.