Former Wayland Teacher Receives 'Shining Light' Award

Molly Faulkner submitted the article below.

Pat Conaway, B. Patrick Conaway, Mr. Con, Con – all these men were awarded The 2013 Harriet F. Siegel Shining Light Award by the Natick Education Foundation at the Natick Center for the Arts on March 20 – the vernal equinox. 

This award is given to an individual who has made a sustained volunteer contribution that has increased the quality of life in Natick in a broad sense over a long period of time, including, but not limited to, supporting educational excellence and strong schools; and/or made an outstanding, major contribution at a particular point in time to quality education. NEF seeks especially to honor those who foster creativity, embody the spirit of volunteerism, support the accomplishments of others, work to the highest standard of excellence, show wisdom and humor.

A large contingent of his Wayland friends – high school students, some parents, teachers from the Wayland Middle School where Pat taught for many years – sat together. Some of us had been parent chaperones on some of Mr. Con’s many overnight hikes up Greylock or in the White Mountains or canoe trips on the Sudbury or Connecticut Rivers, or – closer to home in Westwood but harder – spending a long cold winter night in an improvised shelter built of snow leaves and sticks with middle schoolers whose houses were far warmer and sturdier.

Present too were young women whose first “Con Trips” were as little sixth graders. Pat inspired such loyalty among parents that one of them would plan hunting and fishing trips so as to be able to supply fresh haddock from the Bay or marinated venison – sometimes both. This writer remembers Tom Monahan humping in a deep fat fryer to a down-river campsite so that we could savor fresh fish, for breakfast and dinner. Someone said that armies march on their stomachs – Con knew how important delicious hot food (much of it greasy and salty) was to young and old outside. Some chaperones had no children “in the game” but loved to help Mr. Con with their time and energy and pickup trucks year after year.

This from Pat upon receiving the award:

How do you build community? How do you get people involved to contribute? Go local.  Get people to notice the local environment which is MIA – Misunderstood, Ignored and Abused. All of the trash in our rivers, woods, suggests that our relationship with the environment has been twisted and disrupted.  Let’s heal some of these relationships and restore the balance.  We do this by adopting the three kindnesses: be kind to yourself, be kind to others, be kind to the earth and to adopt the three “S’s”: slow down, simplify, and serve.  On this day of celestial balance, equal hours of day and night, let’s use this as an opportunity to regain OUR balance.  How can we thrive and still find our place in the web with plants and other creatures?

It is a sad and puzzling irony that the mammal with the largest proportionate brain has broken glass everywhere so that other creatures are injured;  produced, consumed and thrown out so much, so fast that it threatens our biosphere, wipes out entire populations,  poisons the air,  and water and habitat;  warred against its own brothers and sisters and wiped out whole cultures; and now pushes us near a threshold which could turn our own planet’s critical blanket of air into a heat-trapping trench coat that would wipe out life as we know it…..

Yet, I’ve learned that many people will pick up when they’ve a container to throw the stuff into.  We’ve got the right containers, and we have each other. ... Lean local.  Ask yourselves what have I done this week to help my community, neighbors, friends and family? For, in this web of life, we find solace, redemption and love delicately woven into serving others and healing the earth.