Come join the Friends of the Jackson Public Library as locals Sam and Betsey Harding show us highlights from their recent trip to the Russian Kamchatka peninsula.

Sam and Betsey Harding took the trip of a lifetime last fall, traveling to the far northeast Pacific coast of Siberia.  Their adventure stretched over 2000 miles on a converted Russian research vessel, starting at the Arctic Circle and continuing south along the sparsely populated Bering Sea coast of the Kamchatka peninsula.

Their adventure included multiple daily Zodiac trips ashore to hike and explore the largely unspoiled natural beauty of the peninsula – hundreds of species of plants, birds, and marine and land animals – from the brilliant fall tundra foliage to the larch forests, broad rivers, and active volcanoes of the south.

Sam Harding taught Russian for 28 years at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, NJ.  During that time he traveled extensively throughout the Soviet Union and Russia.  In 2000 Sam and Betsey retired to Jackson and founded a nonprofit, Friends of Russian Orphans, supporting orphans and orphanages in the ancient Russian city of Yaroslavl.  Some of their extensive travels together include Lake Baikal in southern Siberia and the Trans-Siberian railroad from Beijing through Mongolia to Moscow.

This program is free and open to the public, although a $5.00 donation is welcome to offset presenter expenses.  For more information, please contact the Jackson Public Library at 603-383-9731.