World-Class Canoeist to Speak at DCEC Annual Program

Valerie Fons, left, and Verlen Kruger are shown paddling from the Arctic Ocean to Cape Horn. The two are conducting an acid rain study for General Motors Environmental Research Laboratory and Michigan State University’s Institute of Water Research. Fons is placing a rain collector on the stern of her canoe.

Valerie Fons, a world record-setting canoeist, will be the keynote speaker at the Door County Environmental Council’s 2009 annual summer program. The program is set for Wednesday, August 19 at 7 pm at the Baileys Harbor Town Hall.

Fons is a mother of six, a United Methodist pastor, and the owner of Bread and Water LLC, a Washington Island Travel Green business. She is also the president of LAUNCH (Lake Adventures Uniting Nature and Children with Hospitality) and chairperson of the Washington Island Canoe and Kayak Race, Expedition & Symposium.

Fons is also one of few ever to complete a two continent canoe trip from the Arctic Ocean, in Northwest Territories of Canada, to Cape Horn in Chile. Her other accomplishments includes taking part in the Eddie Bauer Mississippi Challenge, in which she canoed the 2,348 mile length of the Mississippi River in 19 days, setting a Guinness world-record. She has also completed the AuSable Canoe Marathon (the longest non-stop canoe race in North America at 120 miles) in less than 17 hours.

Fons began her long-distance paddling after meeting her late husband world-class canoeist, Verlen Kruger, paddling along with him during one leg of a long-distance canoe challenge in Baja, California.

“Paddling Past the Pond,” her slideshow presentation at the DCEC program is an account of the 21,000-mile trip from the Arctic Ocean to Cape Horn with Kruger. During the expedition, Fons conducted daily water quality tests through 23 countries for the Michigan State University’s Institute of Water Research and the General Motors Environmental Research Laboratory.

In addition to the presentation by Fons, DCEC’s “Environmentalist of the Year” will also be revealed at the program.

For more information, call 920.743.6003 or visit http://www.dcec-wi.org.