Jane V. Blanchard Profile

Jane was born in Hartford, Connecticut. Upon graduation from college, she worked as a travel guide in Madrid, Spain, and cried at her first bullfight. In 1975, she and her husband Dennis lived in a tent in Winchendon, Massachusetts, for six months (until December) while they built a log cabin. After two years of living off-the-grid, they lived a self-sufficient lifestyle on a five-acre "gentleman's" farm.

Before moving to Sarasota, Florida, she lived in Hampstead, New Hampshire for twenty-four years, where she raised two children, was a soccer and Odyssey of the Mind coach, and received the New Hampshire Excellence in Education Volunteer of the Year Award in 1996. She enjoyed hiking and biking and climbed twenty of the forty 4,000-foot mountains in New England.

In her fifties, Jane started mountain biking and racing. In 2002, she placed second in the Eastern Fat Tire Association Senior Division. "Even though I was not the fastest competitor, I did attend and complete the majority of that year's races. Just like with the turtle and the hare, slow and consistent wins over fast but sporadic."

In Sarasota, Jane became involve with several national and local organizations bent on helping women, and hosted a weekly radio show, Woman Matters, for two-and-a-half years.

When she married in 1974, her husband Dennis and she joked about creating a lifetime of memories to chat about when sitting in their rockers in old age. Now in her mid-60s, Jane is still creating memories, experiencing life as fully as possible, and looking forward to a long future. "I have to live long enough to write about all my adventures," she says.

Jane enjoys gardening, cooking, reading, and spending time with friends and family.