From the Desk of the Director...

New Year Greetings Adventure Women!

We bid farewell to 2006 with visions of wonderful Retreat weekends, fundraisers and Spring Flings dancing in our heads. Before those visions fade into the New Year, I want to share the great adventures we experienced this Fall.

Under sunny, beautiful Fall skies, our 4th Annual Arts and Crafts Festival was a great celebration in support of women living after breast cancer. We had a fun-filled day of musical entertainment by guitarist and songwriter Sammie Hayes and Jeff Monkman, educational displays by Exeter Hospital, home baked goodies donated for our bake sale table and a fantastic variety of arts and crafts donated from our 65 crafters for our Raffle event. None of this would have been possible without our fleet of volunteers in blue Tortuga t-shirts who set-up our space for the crafters, ran the Raffle/bake sale event, directed the traffic and assisted in numerous ways to make this fundraiser a huge success. Our thanks to the crafters who supported our Arts and Crafts Festival with their handcrafted wares and the Town of Stratham for use of their beautiful park.

We closed the Fall season of change and transformation with a Health and Healing Fall Retreat on the sand dune beach of Ferry Beach Park in Saco, ME on November 3-5, 2006. With the ocean as the background, 20 adventure women experienced a weekend of expressive and healing arts. Leah Carey, director of “Bosom Buddies”, led us through guided writing exercises and expressive activities to “Reclaim Our Voice”. Some highlights of our weekend were Yoga and Reiki sessions between walks on the beach from dawn to sunset and dancing in the moonlight. Our Sharing Circle around the campfire, dancing the night away with DansKinetics, relaxing by the woodstove in the company of our breast sisters culminated by our moving Healing Ceremony brought us together for a weekend of reflection and transformation.

Now, onto the Adventures of 2007. We will kick off the New Year with our popular St. Patrick’s Day Winter Retreat on March 16-18, 2007 at the AMC Highland Center at Crawford Notch in Bretton Woods, NH. Challenge yourself with a White Mountain Adventure with snowshoe hikes, naturalist activities and expressive/healing arts activities. Come meet old friends, welcome new ones, relax by the fire and renew yourself.

Be sure to mark your calendars and plan to “Spring into Spring” with our April 15, 2007 Spring Fling at the Community Campus in Portsmouth, NH. A delicious luncheon and some Adventurous fun will help get you through the April showers and our New England mud season. Watch for our mailing in Spring 2007.

Betty’s dream of “women helping women” has continued through your financial and volunteer support. Thank you for your generosity. It is our honor and pleasure to provide the opportunity for women of all stages and ages of breast cancer to move from surviving to thriving. If you would like to “give back" for all the love and support you received in your breast cancer journey, please consider some of the volunteer and donation opportunities listed in our Opportunities for Giving.

As we begin a New Year, may we keep this image in our hearts and mind…

“Like the Tortuga, we always move forward, with our heads held high ready to plant the seeds of love, kindness, laughter and support to those around us..."          - Betty J. Borry

Tortuga Lives!
Cynthia Cote, President & Director

4th Annual Arts and Crafts Festival
September 9, 2006
Stratham Hill Park, Stratham, NH


So many crafters, so many decisions

Fall Retreat 2006
November 3-5, 2006
Ferry Beach Park, Saco, ME

Strutting Their Stuff

Winter Retreat 2007
March 16-18 2007
AMC Highland Center, Bretton Woods, NH

X-Country Skiing from the Higland Center

Spring Fling 2007
April 15, 2007
Community Campus, Portsmouth, NH

Spring Fling Creation