Escapees May-June 2023

care

Meet Dave: CARE’s New Executive Director By CRYSTAL SAULTER #149374, CARE Marketing Manager

Hawaii (without the RV), and if they ever make it, North Dakota will be their 50 fi nal state to visit. The Condit family has always been into camping, from tents, to slide-in pickup campers to a 40-foot fi fth wheel. While most of their camping was here in the US, they lived in the Netherlands for fi ve years where month-long summer 'holidays’ involved camping in every western European country, except for Spain and Portugal. Their favorite places were in Switzerland, Italy and Greece. In 2015, Dave and Tammy came to Escapees CARE to volunteer for two months. Two months eventually turned into six months. Both loved CARE and the residents in the park. They returned to the road for a year to travel the Northeast US, along with exploring the Southeast Canadian providences. After a year of traveling, Dave was offered the Maintenance manager position at CARE. In 2017, Dave came out of retirement and began working at CARE. Several big projects were laid out and overseen by Dave. These included building the new 18 RV sites, acquiring/installing the third, fourthand fi fth Generac generators, replace wiring/ pedestals at the older lots, adding the new addition to the Thrift N Gift (TNG) resale store and relocating the laundry to a larger and more modern facility. In the fi rst quarter of 2022, the existing director, Russell Johnson, announced his retirement, and Dave was recommended to become the new director and was approved by the board of directors. Tammy has always been actively working in CARE’s TNG re-sale shop since 2017. In 2022, the TNG’s manager stepped down. Tammy was ‘next in line’ to become manager, which she accepted. At that same time the TNG’s new larger building was added, allowing a much larger selection of products to be displayed. Tammy had her work cut out for her during her fi rst few months, with setting up and moving into the new building, plus redecorating the existing facility. Dave and Tammy are not only active in the life at CARE, but extend their lives into the city of Livingston and to Polk County, Texas, through their church’s outreach to the homeless. Each Tuesday, Tammy purchases, prepares and delivers a home-cooked meal to 35-plus homeless Livingston, Texas. Dave and Tammy are excited to call Livingston their “Hometown” and CARE as their “Family.” Escapees CARE Needs Volunteers and Donations! Volunteers receive a free site, three meals per day, free WiFi in our center and more. Volunteers give 28/36 hours per week for four weeks. Donations (via www.paypal.com/ givingfund, www.iGive.com, www.escapees.com/store, or through a bequest in your will) all help support Escapees CARE. For further details, call 936 327-4256, e-mail carefd@escapees.com, 155 Care Center Dr, Livingston, TX 77351 or visit www.escapeescare.org |

Let me introduce you to our new execu tive director at Escapees CARE, Inc.: Dave Condit. He was born in Oklahoma, but lived most of his life in Texas. He and his wife, Tammy, have been married 53 years. They have three sons, eight grandchildren, one great-grandchild and another on the way. A fter graduating from college in 1972, Dave spent his entire career life as a software engineer for banking, telephone, oil and gas, and aeronautical companies. Dave’s most exciting days were working in the Mission Control Center, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, along side the mission-control team and the astronauts fl ying in both the shuttle and international space station. Dave says, "Everyday at NASA was exciting, fun, and you were consistently learning and trying new things. The worst day ever was February 1, 2003, when Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it reentered the atmosphere over Texas, killing all seven astronauts on board." Dave and Tammy retired in 2010, bought a fi fth wheel, sold the house and became full-time RVers, trav eling to eight Canadian providences and most of the US, except two states. They took a cruise from California to

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ESCAPEES Magazine May/June 2023