MANCHESTER - At a time when many contemplate slowing down, attorney Thomas J. Donovan and psychologist Stephanie Williston are taking a full-body plunge into the Peace Corps and the harsh desert climate of Botswana.

Creature comforts? They won't find many in a country where highs reach 110, lows dip to the mid-30s and there will be no central heat or air conditioning to cushion the extremes.

Building community? Donovan, 59, a longtime community activist, supporter of the arts and education and former mayoral candidate and his wife Williston, 63, a practicing clinician and board member with the Women for Women Coalition, bring decades of community organizing experience to the Peace Corps.

New challenges? Williston will be charged with helping Botswana school teachers and administrators put in place a HIV and AIDs prevention program. “I'm hoping it will be secondary school, because that's my background,” she said.

“I'm not ready to retire,” Donovan said, but the two-year commitment means he'll have to leave behind his clients at the McLane Law Firm, where he is a director and shareholder.

Williston, who will be leaving behind her work at Pastoral Counseling Services, served in the Peace Corps in Kenya from 1973 to 1975.

Married 32 years, the Donovans have two adult children, Kate, 29, and Pat, 26.

“We're in excellent health, our children are not married, we don't have any grandchildren,” Williston said. “This is a perfect window to do it.”

“Donovan is finance chair for St. Anne-St. Augustine Church in Manchester, which has immigrants from countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

“Certainly being exposed to people from many other parts of the world makes your realize that it's a big world out there and there is certainly a lot of work that needs to be done all around the world,” Donovan said.

In 1997, Donovan took a three-month sabbatical to work in Hungary and Slovakia helping nonprofits to grow.

He also has run for mayor, served on the city school board and numerous nonprofit organizations, including the Palace Theatre.

Following in the footsteps of lawyer John McLane, for whom the McLane Law Firm is named, Donovan served as chairman of the Palace Theatre and is a current member of the board of trustees.

Dr. Sylvio Dupuis, an ex officio member of the Palace board, said Monday that Donovan was “one of the prime movers in getting the theater reopened.”

He remembers the date, Nov. 2, 1974.

“He's been very helpful through all that time,” Dupuis said. “He's going out now to do some really special work and I really admire him and his wife for the commitment they are making because it's really a long commitment and a very serious one.”

Williston is a board member with Women for Women, a group dedicated to helping African refugee women and children.

“I learned the first time I was in the Peace Corps that more than anything, it is about the people getting to know about Americans in a completely different way,” Williston said. “It's a program of friendship and understanding.”

Currently, 120 volunteers serve in Botswana. Volunteers work to address HIV/AIDS in the areas of health, community development and education.

New Hampshire was fifth in the nation in 2011 for producing Peace Corps volunteers on a per-capita basis, spokeswoman Elizabeth Chamberlain said. There are currently 88 Peace Corps volunteers serving from the Granite State.

Donovan and Williston leave Sept. 11. They'll get eight weeks of language, cultural and technical training when they get to Botswana.

“I want to make a difference in people's lives,” Donovan said. “I have really been blessed here in Manchester with a great career and many community ties, and I just think I have a lot to offer from my own experience here and I want to be able to accomplish something elsewhere while I still can. Obviously, we all have a limited amount of time here.”

dpaiste@unionleader.com